Tudor Monte Carlo

In the pantheon of vintage chronographs, the Tudor Home Plate sits right next to the Daytona.

Tudor Monte Carlos are insanely cool but believe it or not there’s an even cooler Tudor. The 'Home Plate,' nicknamed for the baseball home plate shape of the hour plots, is the OG Tudor chronograph, and Tudor sure has hell got it right the first time.

When Tudor returned to their roots and successfully reinvigorated the brand with heritage-inspired new releases, their first move wasn’t a Snowflake Sub or Oyster Prince. Tudor released a Heritage Chronograph, modeled after on of their original exotic dialed chronos, known to collectors as the “Homeplate”. All of the vintage exotic chronos are surging in popularity, and represent the best of vintage Tudor in the eyes of many collectors.

Let’s break this watch down. First off, the black Bakelite bezel is incredibly cool, and our favorite vintage bezel material. It’s attached to a 40mm Oyster case, which is the perfect size for any wrist, and looks oh so good with the screw-down pushers. However, the dial steals the show, and it alone explains why the Home Plate has become such a hotly sought after watch. Tudor has always been the branch of the Rolex company that took the risks and pushed the envelope, and all of their chronos are killer. The huge tritium lume plots are unlike anything else out there, and with a nice creamy patina, add tons of vintage charm.

Powered by a manually wound Valjoux 7734 movement, the Tudor differs from the Daytona a bit in terms of functionality. The Monte Carlo sways the Daytona’s hours chronograph subregister for a date, and counts up to 45 minutes.   The cyclops date magnifier is a Rolex/Tudor trademark touch, but these Tudor chronos are the only instance of it found at 6 o’clock, and if you look closely, you’ll see that the crystal is not a standard “Top Hat” spun around, but the magnifier itself is rotated 90 degrees to a horizontal orientation over the date. Even if you’ve never been much of a cyclops fan, on this watch it just works!

Home Plates are not easy to find these days, and they come at a price, but what you’re getting for your money is an incredibly cool and unique vintage chronograph. We love so many of Tudor’s vintage pieces, but what we have here is something truly special.