Identify a Tudor From a Photo: Reference and Serial Guide

Tudor follows the same convention as Rolex. The numbers are engraved on the case flank between the lugs, not on the dial, and on modern watches not on the outside of the caseback either.

• Reference between the lugs at 12 o'clock. Remove the bracelet or push the end link aside and the reference is engraved on the case between the upper lugs: 79230N on a black Black Bay, 25600TN on a Pelagos.
• Serial between the lugs at 6 o'clock. The serial sits in the same position at the bottom of the case, hidden by the lower end link, and is the number on the warranty card.
• Caseback. On vintage and pre-2010 Tudors the screw-down caseback is usually Rolex-signed and reads Original Oyster Case by Rolex Geneva. That is correct and expected, not a sign of a mixed-parts watch. Modern casebacks carry Tudor's own name and, on a few limited pieces such as the Pelagos LHD, an individual number, but never the reference or serial.
• Rehaut. Tudor has not adopted the repeating engraving that Rolex has put on the inner bezel ring since the mid-2000s, so do not expect to find the serial there.

The warranty card prints the full catalogue form of the reference, with an M prefix and a hyphenated variant suffix (M79230N-0009, for example), next to the serial. The engraving on the case carries only the core reference, 79230N. For the cross-brand picture, see our guide to watch reference numbers.

A modern Tudor reference is a block of four or five digits followed by one or more letters. The digits identify the model family and its generation; the letters describe the bezel colour or the case material. N stands for noir (black), R for rouge (burgundy), B for bleu (blue), RB for the red and blue GMT bezel, T for titanium, BM for bronze and DK for the black-coated Black Bay Dark.

Family prefixes are consistent enough to be useful. References beginning 79 are Black Bay and its relatives, including the Ranger (79950), the smooth-bezel Black Bay 36 and 41 (79500 and 79540) and the Black Bay 54 (79000N). References beginning 25 are Pelagos, including the Pelagos FXD (25707B) and the Pelagos 39 (25407N). The Heritage Chrono is 70330N or 70330B, and the Royal runs from 28300 to 28600 with case size rising with the number. Vintage references are shorter: four digits for the 1950s to 1970s (7922, 7928, 9411) and five digits from the 1980s (76100, 79090, 79190).

The serial is unique to the watch. Dating from it works in broad strokes only, and we deliberately do not publish a year table.

• Vintage serials are all numeric. Collectors use published ranges to place a 1950s to 1990s Tudor within a few years, but those ranges are compiled from observed watches and Tudor has never confirmed them. Cases were also made in batches and sold from stock, so a watch may have been cased well before it was sold.
• Modern serials begin with a letter. Since the 2010s Tudor serials are a letter prefix followed by a block of digits. Collectors associate the prefix letters with approximate windows, but there is no official table and the windows overlap; for a modern watch the warranty card date is the only reliable indicator.
• Caseback stamps beat serial charts. On a vintage Tudor with its original Rolex-made case, the quarter and year code stamped inside the caseback (a Roman numeral and two digits) is a better guide than the serial, though only a watchmaker should open the case. It dates the case, not the sale.

A serial never confirms authenticity. Serials are copied onto counterfeits, and only Tudor, through an authorised retailer or its service network, can check a number against its records. For the general approach to dating older watches, see our vintage watch collecting guide.

Most Tudors can be sorted into a collection from a clear photo of the dial side. The snowflake hour hand is the single most useful Tudor tell, but it is not on every model.

• Black Bay 41 mm: snowflake hands, a domed crystal, a large crown without guards and a 60-minute aluminium bezel in black, burgundy or blue. The 2012 to 2016 ETA-powered 79220 series carries the rose on the dial with the text Rotor Self-Winding; the in-house 79230 series from 2016 carries the shield and reads Chronometer Officially Certified. Relatives include the Black Bay Steel (79730), the 43 mm Bronze (79250BM) and the two-tone S&G (79733N).
• Black Bay Fifty-Eight: the same design language at 39 mm with a case under 12 mm thick and 20 mm lugs. The black 79030N has gilt printing and a red triangle at 12 on the bezel; the blue 79030B has silver printing. The 37 mm Black Bay 54 (79000N) is smaller again and has no red triangle.
• Black Bay GMT and Black Bay Pro: both add a snowflake-tipped 24-hour hand. The GMT is 41 mm with a rotating red and blue bezel; the Pro is 39 mm with a fixed steel 24-hour bezel and a yellow GMT hand.
• Black Bay Chrono: two sub-dials at 3 and 9, a steel tachymeter bezel and screw-down pushers at 41 mm. The 2017 version has a black dial; the 2021 version comes in panda and reverse-panda.
• Pelagos: a 42 mm matte titanium case, a ceramic bezel insert with luminous markings, square indices, snowflake hands, a helium valve at 9 o'clock, a 500 m rating and a titanium bracelet with a spring-loaded clasp. The LHD has its crown on the left. The Pelagos 39 is smaller, rated to 200 m and has no helium valve; the Pelagos FXD has fixed strap bars and is also rated to 200 m.
• Ranger: the 2022 Ranger (79950) is 39 mm with a matte black dial, 3-6-9-12 Arabic numerals, an arrow hour hand and a burgundy-tipped seconds hand. The 2014 Heritage Ranger (79910) was 41 mm.
• Royal: an integrated bracelet, a notched bezel, Roman or baton indices and a date or day-date, launched in 2020 in sizes from 28 to 41 mm.
• Heritage Chrono: 42 mm, with the home-plate indices and 45-minute counter of the 1970s Monte Carlo chronographs and a bidirectional 12-hour bezel; grey and black on the 2010 70330N, blue on the 2013 70330B.
• Vintage: Oyster Prince watches of the 1950s and 1960s; Submariners from the 7922 and big-crown 7924 of the 1950s through the 7928, the snowflake 7016 and 7021 of 1969 and the 9401 and 9411 of the 1970s and 1980s, to the Mercedes-handed 76100, 79090 and 79190 of the 1980s and 1990s; and the Homeplate and Monte Carlo chronographs (7031, 7032, 7149, 7159, 7169) followed by the Big Block automatics.

Logo eras help with dating. A rose inside a shield points to the late 1940s and 1950s, a rose on its own to the 1950s and 1960s, and the shield to the end of the 1960s onward. The Heritage models of the 2010s revived the rose, so a rose on a modern Black Bay is a sign of an ETA-powered watch, not a vintage one.

• Tudor or Rolex: until the late 1990s Tudor used Rolex-made cases, Rolex-signed crowns and casebacks and Rolex bracelets, so a vintage Tudor with Rolex on the crown is correct. The dial logo settles it: a rose or shield means Tudor, a coronet means Rolex. Tudor also used ETA and Valjoux movements for most of its history, with in-house MT calibres only since 2015, so the movement is a second check. Our Rolex identification page covers the other side.
• Tudor Submariner or Rolex Submariner: the 1980s and 1990s Tudor Submariners (76100, 79090, 79190) have Mercedes hands and look very much like a Rolex 5513 or 16610 at arm's length. Because cases, crowns, bezel inserts and bracelets interchange, mixed-parts watches are common; check that the dial, caseback and reference all agree.
• Black Bay or Black Bay Fifty-Eight: 41 mm versus 39 mm, nearly 15 mm thick versus under 12 mm, 22 mm versus 20 mm lugs, and a reference starting 7923 versus 7903. In a photo with nothing for scale, the gilt printing and red bezel triangle of the black Fifty-Eight are the quickest tells.
• Pelagos or Pelagos FXD: the FXD has fixed strap bars, so it cannot take a bracelet; it is rated to 200 m rather than 500 m, has no helium valve, and the blue Marine Nationale version has a bidirectional countdown bezel.
• Homages and counterfeits: the snowflake hand and the Black Bay case have been widely imitated by microbrands; the name on the dial gives them away. Outright fakes of the Black Bay Fifty-Eight and the Pelagos exist. Our guide to spotting a fake luxury watch covers the general method.

Tudor suits photo identification because its collections are visually distinct. Upload a picture on our identification page and WatchID matches the case shape, bezel, dial layout, hands and logo against known Tudor models, returning ranked candidates with their references.

1. Shoot the dial straight on in soft light so the logo and the text at 6 o'clock are readable; the difference between Rotor Self-Winding and Chronometer Officially Certified separates two generations of Black Bay.
2. Add a photo of the case side showing the crown and, if you can, the engraving between the lugs at 12 o'clock.
3. Compare the suggested reference with the engraving. Close siblings such as 79220N and 79230N, or 79030N and 79000N, may both be proposed.

Limits: a photo cannot confirm the movement, cannot tell an original dial from a replacement, and cannot rule out a mixed-parts vintage Submariner. For the method in detail, read how to identify a watch from a photo. To see what a given reference sells for, browse the Tudor listings on Horoview. If you are weighing a Tudor against its closest rivals, our Rolex and Omega guides describe the equivalent cues on those sides.