A Classic Watch with a Twist, The 1997 Tudor Prince Oysterdate reference 74033

I am sure you have put a watch on your wrist and felt a certain type of way about it. Both in a good way and a bad way. Sometimes a watch just speaks to you, and you either want to add it to your collection or want to avoid it like the plague. The Tudor Prince Oysterdate seems like a watch that many collectors would have a good reaction from.

Tudor, known as the sister brand of Rolex, has a very interesting and successful history tied very closely to Rolex. The beginnings of the brand’s relationship with Tudor came in 1936 when Hans Wilsdorf took over Tudor, the name, and their watch production. Rolex wanted to establish a lower-priced alternative to Rolex that maintained the high-quality watches they produced. Rolex used the rose of the British royal house of Tudor as the logo found on the dials of these watches.

In 1946, very soon after World War II, Wilsdorf founded Montres Tudor S.A., giving Tudor its own independent brand. Fast forward 6 years and Tudor took a feather from Rolex’s book and launched the Tudor Oyster Prince line of watches. From the name, it is clear what pieces of technical innovation they used from Rolex; the Oyster case and self-winding mechanism with perpetual rotor. These innovations lead to the creation of the Oyster Prince Submariner which was Tudor’s first dive watch.

As the brand continued to expand and see success in their watch models, the Oyster Prince developed into the Prince Oysterdate - models that featured a date complication. The model today is a Tudor Prince Oysterdate reference 74033 manufactured in 1997. The era of watchmaking is an interesting time period. To some, this feels like the modern era of watches but to others, it feels like vintage. Some refer to this as neo-vintage. However you describe it, there were some spectacular watches from this era.

This reference 74033 on the surface is an incredibly classic watch. The watch features a stainless steel oyster cased watch that measures 34mm in diameter. The case is in overall good condition. The caseback has some scratches from wear on it, and the case is likely lightly polished but one can still see the different brushed and polished finishings that are original to the watch. The watch comes on a blue leather strap but also has a jubilee strap which obviously dresses it up nicely.

The watch features an 18k gold fluted bezel, another features that makes the watch feel dressy. The reference 74033 also came with smooth bezels, which are quite an interesting comparison compared to the versions with fluted bezels. All of this to this point feels fairly common with Oysterdate watches. What is exciting is the dial.

Given that it is an Oysterdate, the watch features a date complication at 3 o’clock that is magnified to make it easier to read. It has applied hour markers, Tudor shield logo and printed Tudor name and model. All of this is sitting on an incredibly beautiful gold linen finished dial. Counter to what many people believe, a linen dial is not a piece of linen (typically) that has been placed on the dial. Linen dials became popular starting in the 1940’s. It is actually a crosshatch engraving that a watchmaker or machine creates on the dial of the watch, making it look like a textured surface finish. This means the dial will dance in different lights which brings the watch to life on the wrist (but it does make it quite difficult to photograph!). Having this addition detail on this reference 74033 makes the watch stand out a bit more compared to other Rolex or Tudor models with date complications.

The watch is running on the the ETA caliber 2824 movement. This caliber an extremely historic one, and was widely used by many watch companies. It was first launched in 1971. Interestingly this was during the quartz crisis, likely launched because it was mass produced, accurate and extremely robust, and could be used produced inexpensively which was a competitive advantage quartz movements had. Of course this movement runs well, is very robust which matches the idea of the case of this watch - build a reliable tool.

While Tudor Oysterdate’s come in a variety of versions, they can sometimes feel a bit commonplace. But, add a cool dial like a linen dial on this reference 74033 and there is an additional dimension of enjoyment collectors can get. It is beautiful, fun, and oh so nice to look at on the wrist.

Enjoy!