In the realm of watches at least, we are truly living in a Tudor period. Not ‘Wolf Hall’ Tudor, as was the inspiration for Rolex’s anglophile founder Hans Wilsdorf when he registered his more affordable sub-brand; rather, a period that sees Tudor established distinct from its once-big brother. The new Pelagos FXD GMT proves this with all the pomp of a royally decreed divorce or beheading.

Lending more credence than any crown could bestow, the Pelagos FXD has, since its launch in 2021, been specced alongside and subsequently deployed on the wrists of the crack frogmen of the French Navy’s Marine Nationale – just as Tudor’s early version of Rolex’s Submariner was, back in the 1960s (a legacy that informs the brand’s more ‘fashion-forward’ Black Bay collection).

The vowel-less contraction of ‘fixed’ refers to the Pelagos diving watch’s ‘lugs’ or ‘horns’ protruding at 12 and 6 o’clock. Normally holding the bracelet or strap in place via a sprung bar, the difference here is that the case, lugs and bar are all machined from a single, monobloc of titanium, for ultimate rigidity. What’s extra different is the addition of Tudor’s in-house-developed ‘GMT’ second time-zone functionality.