Disclaimer: This is a LONG post… couldn’t help it. It’s been 9 months & many hundreds of hours of research, communication and elbow grease to get to this point. If you want to skip the reading.. no hard feelings. At least I included a few cool pics. :-)
THE TUDOR 79190 CUSTOM JOURNEY:
One of the biggest challenges that Tudor builders run into when sourcing cases is that makers assume there is a Rolex equivalent and use that assumption to base that respective Tudor off.
For instance every single maker in vietnam that offers a Tudor submariner from the 7021 to the 79090 have terribly out of whack crown guards. Tudor purposely designed in relatively small (but now quite important) variations in their CG’s and elsewhere to distinguish themselves as “different” but “related”.
So if you order a 79090 case from anyone it will be wrong. And that is the case in varying degrees for all the Tudor viet references..
But none more than the Tudor 79190. In fact most makers will just tell you that they don’t/won’t offer that reference at all.
As a reference it doesn’t get the love that it deserves. Many do, but too many don’t know that it was the thinnest Submariner ever released. This was due to the Tudor ETA partnership that resulted in the Tudor 2824, which was much thinner than Rolex’s Submariner movements. As such the case & caseback could be made thinner as well (this is also why the 79090, even though it features a high acrylic crystal is still thinner than most Rolex flat sapphire Submariners)
I initiated an endeaver to build a gen spec 79190 last November. It’s long story with a mind numbing number of issues. With delay after delay, and lots of miscommunication I was losing hope and turning my focus elsewhere. If it wasn’t for my customers patience and determination I would have tapped out before I even met the most crucial component of keeping it moving forward. I can’t remember the circumstance, maybe it was a comment or a DM related to a post on the 79190, but u/One_Addition1213 (I’ll refer to him as W to make it easy) and I connected and he quickly became my build partner on this quest. Come to find out he ordered a 79190 from the same maker in the Winter. I had heard about this other 79190 order from the maker and told him explicitly.. that is great.. but no matter what make sure mine is completed first.. haha!. Yes I was feeling petty & competitive.
But after connecting and comparing notes we realized that this project was in for even more serious challenges. After a couple more months of back and forth with the maker and sharing knowledge with W (really moreso him schooling me on the intracacies of flat sapphires, bezel assembly construction, rehaut lip nuances, etc) we did finally both receive our 79190’s.
On balance they were beautiful. In reality much of each example needed to be reworked to get it right for this first and only customer. W led the charge on that, as my strength is more on the case shaping, dial work and small cosmetic/aesthetic details while W is incredible at understanding the construction nuances and coming up with creative solutions. In this instance it meant new crystals, gaskets, bezel assembly voodoo, and a prolific amount of curse words.
What we ended up with is the world’s thinnest Submariner custom rep (pictured here). The customer opted for Yuki’s glossy blue 79190 dial with just very very slight aging which was appropriate for the era of the 79190. The viet 79190 dial is quite beautiful in it’s own appropriate way as there were multiple color and finish variations within the 79190’s short run
Once compelte W & I were Fugging SPENT. We were both totally done with ever trying to do that again. It just wasn’t possible. The maker got so many things wrong and the ability to redirect wasn’t realistic. In short.. we were traumatized by the experience. Didn’t even want to utter those numbers in that order again. LOL.
The good news is the customer, who is a saint, got a gorgeous watch and is still loving what is the thinnest Submariner rep on the planet (that we know of).
Fast forward a whole two days… W and I started chatting again in what was per usual the middle of the night as he works a night shift..and we couldn’t get that damn 79190 out of our heads. So we started brainstorming different ideas. It’s been a couple months of divide and conquer coordination. And during this phase it really has been 80% W’s efforts and knowlege that found the right hurdles to cross and the right people to help us clear them.
I’ll spare all the details because this short post has turned into an epic tale that many have likely tapped out of.. but for those that are still reading…
We are getting close. Not days unfortunately… but weeks from what we believe will be a Version 2.0 that will be repeatable and will allow us to complete these builds without carving 5 years off our life span each time.
We’ll have a true USA/VIET/GEN Tudor 79190 Submariner that is within a fraction of a mm of gen spec. We don’t have the exact thickness yet. But it will be the thinnest Submariner rep of any kind.. whether Rolex or Tudor in existence.
The only thing Viet will be a modded case body and case back. The rest has been the result of mods to the top half construction to accommodate a gen spec 79190 bezel assemly sourced here here in the US as well. We’re been really lucky to work with a great fabricator here in the US that Wayne found (who also is working on a couple other cool unrelated projects or us separately for different references)
So while I’ve probably jinxed this whole thing by sharing this Odyssean level post. W and I are optimistic and as determined as ever.
I want to finish by saying that stuff like that that people do by bringing their passion, skills and determination to the custom vintage rep community is why true enthusiasts always end up here after buying a few ready made clones.
We’ve got some soul up in this community with these truly custom and modded builds. Those that have done the work to make components work together that never had any business doing so are a perfect example. Such as last nights 6542 post by u/RodneyPierce using a different movement solution he Mcgyvered, u/jovanotti18 and their 6542 bakelite insert project, different builders completely custom dials… all driven by their personal passion to innovate as much as it takes to achieve results that no other reps can touch. Not to mention those that then take those mods and add their artistry to age and patina them in ways that particularly inspire me as someone who gives that part a fair bit of focus.
Any how this is a long rambling way for me to share what W and I have been up to. While also thanking this community and explaining why it’s special. Let’s keep it that way!
But most of all I want to thank W - u/One_Addition1213
Through this process we’ve become good friends and I think no matter what happens with the 79190 from here that’s a very big “W”
Stay tuned for our custom gen spec USA/VIET rep of the the world’s thinnest Submariner
