As we already told you in the first part of this article, theTudor Home PlateIt's pure character. Two versions were launched, with a steel bezel Ref. 7032 and the most attractive and sought after, with the black acrylic bezel Ref. 7031.
Here both versions, 7031 and 7032:
Many call it bakelite, but this is incorrect, the bezel is made of acrylic similar to plexiglass, different from bakelite. Rolex's only bakelite bezel was on the GMT Master 6542 from the mid-1950s.
There is a quite esoteric version, with a black dial and gray sub-dials. It is not clear that this version has been sold in stores. Collectors do not agree. There are those who say that these spheres were a service option during maintenance. This is because there is no literature of the time with this sphere. The black sphere ofTudor Home PlateIt's the equivalent of the Paul Newman dial on Rolex's Daytona, only the black dial is even rarer and also heavily counterfeited.
In one form or another the black dial did exist, and was reinterpreted in the successful Heritage Chrono byTudorin 2010, without a doubt the revelation watch of that Baselworld fair.
Do not confuse theTudor Home Platewith its successor, the Tudor Monte Carlo:
Going into detail, in this beautiful 7031 we can see the classic gray dial with the black hexagonal counters. The dial has a slightly marked patina due to paint degradation, something quite common in these dials.
The colors black, gray and orange exude seventies essence. The 45-minute counter, somewhat unusual, has that 5-minute section in orange in the style of regatta timers.
The hour hands are rather large, but do not hinder the reading of the time. For me, the definitive touch of the dial is the date at 6 o'clock, which gives theTudor Home Platea design balance that in my opinion the modern Heritage Chrono lacks:
If I had to choose just one of Rolex's many contributions to 20th century watchmaking, I would definitely choose the Oyster case. Here are two powerful Oyster boxes, the one from the Home Plate and the one from a beautiful 1967 Submariner:
The bracelet is the versatile Oyster, here in a folded sheet version. Simple but it fulfills its function perfectly. The Osyter bracelet is today an immortal design, perhaps the most widespread steel bracelet.
Here with some Tudor paraphernalia to complete this unique piece:
TudorIt was reborn with its reinterpretation back in 2010 of the Heritage Chrono or Tudor Porsche as it has been called, due to an advertisement in the 70s. Here the advertisement and my tribute to that nickname:
The comparison between the original model and the tribute (this is a true tribute).TudorHe did it really well, the new watch is a great interpretation, with a more modern size, but faithful to the spirit of this very special chronograph:
As if that were not enough, it is the original box of the first chronograph ofTudorthe one that has the privilege of being the rarest and most sought after of all watch boxes, along with the cork Nautilus box from the 70s:
Here on the palm, with the watch that was the reason for my first delivery, the Submariner 6536/0, two Rolex/Tudor legends:
And that's it for this second part of the installment dedicated to one of the most representative chronographs of its time and the first of Tudor. See you soon!
Gustavo
