Case #684 — Tudor Black Bay 58 (Blue) Ref. m79030b-0001

Case #684 — Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight "Navy Blue"

Ref. M79030B-0001

Status: Available

Condition: Excellent Pre-Owned

Scope: Box, Papers, and Cards

Year: 2022

🔎 Case Notes

Blue is the easiest colour in watchmaking to get wrong, and the Black Bay Fifty-Eight "Navy Blue" is one of the clearest examples of getting it right. The dial is a domed navy, the bezel insert a matte blue anodised aluminium disc with silver-gilded markers — a deliberate departure from the blackened insert of the standard model, and a pairing that reads as sporty and dressy at once. Under most light it is simply a dark dive watch; turn the wrist and the colour arrives.

The case is the real argument. Thirty-nine millimetres across, 11.9 mm thick, 20 mm between the lugs, in polished and satin-finished 316L steel — proportions drawn from Tudor's late-1950s divers rather than the modern tendency toward bulk. The purpose-built movement is what made those dimensions possible, dropping the Fifty-Eight's thickness well below that of the original 41 mm Black Bay line.

This example dates to 2022 and is graded Excellent Pre-Owned. It arrives on its steel bracelet with folding clasp and safety catch, sized for an approximately 7½-inch wrist, and is accompanied by its box, papers and cards along with the original hang tag. No specific condition flaws were recorded at inspection.

🕰️ The Evidence

• Reference: M79030B-0001
• Model / Collection: Black Bay Fifty-Eight "Navy Blue"
• Year: 2022
• Case: 316L stainless steel, polished and satin finish
• Case Diameter: 39 mm
• Thickness: 11.9 mm
• Lug Width: 20 mm
• Dial: Navy blue, domed, applied luminous indices, Snowflake hands
• Crystal: Domed sapphire
• Bezel: Unidirectional rotating, 120-click, matte blue anodised aluminium insert with silver-gilded markings
• Crown: Steel screw-down winding crown with the Tudor rose in relief
• Caseback: Closed steel
• Movement: Manufacture Calibre MT5402, self-winding with bidirectional rotor system
• Certification: COSC chronometer
• Frequency: 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 27 jewels, silicon hairspring
• Power Reserve: Approximately 70 hours
• Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, with stop-seconds for precise time setting
• Water Resistance: 200 m / 660 ft
• Bracelet: Steel bracelet, polished and satin finish, riveted-style construction
• Clasp: Folding clasp with safety catch
• Bracelet Fit: Approximately 7½-inch wrist
• Condition: Excellent Pre-Owned
• Factory Warranty: Tudor five-year guarantee from date of purchase — subject to the warranty-card activation date and Tudor's terms
• Included: Box, Papers, Cards, Hang Tag

🌟 Collector Provenance

The Fifty-Eight takes its name from 1958, the year Tudor introduced its first 200-metre diver, and the line exists to answer a specific complaint: that the 41 mm Black Bay had outgrown the watches it was meant to evoke. The solution was not simply a smaller case but a smaller movement. Calibre MT5402 is a reduced-diameter, thinner derivative of the MT5602, developed for the Black Bay 58 line and offered without date display while retaining the frequency, materials and power reserve of its larger sibling.

The Navy Blue variant arrived in 2020 as the first colour alternative to the original gilt-and-black Fifty-Eight. Mechanically it is the same watch — the same in-house MT5402 — reworked in navy dial and bezel for a more contemporary read. Where the black version leans into a faded-gilt vintage homage, the blue reference works differently: the silver-gilded bezel markings against matte blue recall mid-century Submariner territory without copying it outright.

The Snowflake handset is the other piece of Tudor's own history at play here. The square-tipped hands trace back to the Tudor divers supplied to the French Marine Nationale in the 1970s — a design the brand retired for decades before reviving it as the signature of the Black Bay family.

Reference M79030B-0001 is the bracelet configuration. The Navy Blue was also offered on a blue "soft touch" synthetic strap and a blue fabric strap, which carry their own reference endings; this is the version supplied from the factory on steel.

🌟 Technical Provenance

The specification that collectors actually feel day to day is the power reserve. At roughly 70 hours, the MT5402 can sit from Friday evening to Monday morning and still be running, where most dive watches in the class offer around 48. It also carries a non-magnetic silicon hairspring and a free-sprung balance — construction usually associated with higher price brackets and a meaningful advantage in a watch intended to be worn rather than wound and shelved.

The bezel deserves a note of its own. The 120-click unidirectional mechanism gives half-minute resolution rather than the full-minute steps of a 60-click bezel, with the positive engagement that distinguishes Tudor's bezels in this segment. The silver-gilded markers on the matte anodised insert are a durability decision as much as an aesthetic one, holding their appearance in a way painted markings do not.

🧾 From the Case File

For a buyer weighing a modern dive watch, the Fifty-Eight's case makes the strongest practical case. Thirty-nine millimetres suits a wider range of wrists than almost any competing diver, and at 11.9 mm thick it passes under a cuff in a way that most 200-metre watches do not. The 20 mm lug width also opens the full aftermarket of straps should you wish to change character — leather, fabric, rubber — without hunting for an unusual size.

Practically, the configuration here is the one most buyers want: the factory steel bracelet with folding clasp and safety catch, rather than one of the strap-only versions. It is sized to an approximately 7½-inch wrist, and wrist geometry varies, so confirm against your own measurement.

Completeness matters on a reference this widely traded. This example comes with its box, papers, cards and hang tag — the set a future buyer will ask about — and as a 2022 watch it may still fall within Tudor's five-year guarantee period, depending on the activation date recorded on the card and Tudor's terms. Against buying new, the appeal is straightforward: the same specification, in Excellent Pre-Owned condition, with the paperwork intact.

🗝️ BST Verdict

A clean 2022 example of the reference that recalibrated Tudor's dive watch around its own 1950s proportions — in the navy configuration that gives the Fifty-Eight a different personality from the gilt original without departing from the formula.

Correct bracelet reference, full set with hang tag, Excellent Pre-Owned condition, and a chronometer-certified manufacture calibre with a weekend-proof reserve. A watch to wear, not store.

👉 Every case deserves a closer look.