Tudor Release Pelagos FXD Alinghi Red Bull Racing Editions Including First Pelagos Chronograph

Back in 2022 Tudor announced that it had become the long term timing partner of the Alinghi Red Bull yacht racing team. Now we’re seeing the first fruits of that partnership in the form of the new Pelagos FXD Alinghi Red Bull Racing Edition. Alinghi are no strangers to special edition watches having worked with Omega in the past on the Alinghi Dark Side of the Moon. But the Pelagos FXD Alinghi features a notable milestone for Tudor as it’s their first carbon composite timepiece and first Pelagos chronograph.

There are actually two versions of the special edition being produced, a time only model and a chronograph. They’re broadly the same in terms of design and styling although the chrono is slightly larger at 43mm while the time only is 42mm. As mentioned, the case is made from carbon composite, the same material that the Alinghi Red Bull yacht is made of. However, the case isn’t exclusively carbon as the caseback is steel and the crown, pushers and bezel are titanium.

It’s designed to reflect how different materials work together on a yacht to create an optimised combination of strength, durability and weight. Aesthetically it looks good. The composite has more the appearance of a matte PVD rather than the textures we traditionally associate with carbon but I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. It looks clean and race ready. Speaking of racing, the bidirectional rotating bezel features a countdown timer to serve in the same capacity as a regatta timer.

In principle both dials are standard Tudor fare, snowflake hands and all, just in the Alinghi team colours of navy blue and red. The hour markers are made from luminescent ceramic while the hands feature SuperLuminova for low light legibility. Naturally, as this is the first Pelagos chrono, this is the first time that we’re seeing this dial feature bicompax chronograph counters with small seconds at 9 o’clock and a 45-minute timer at 3. It’s kind of a hybrid between the Black Bay Chrono and the traditional Pelagos.

As there are two models here, there are also two movements. The time only version has the Calibre MT5602 while the chronograph has the Calibre MT5813, both are COSC chronometer certified with automatic winding and 70-hour power reserves. Really, the main difference between them are the complications with the time only having hours, minutes and seconds while the chrono has hours, minutes, small seconds, chronograph seconds, 45-minute timer and date.

It’s exciting to be getting a Pelagos chronograph even though it’s not necessarily a natural complication for a tool watch. I do hope they launch one in alternative colours, the navy and red combo is fine but it would be cool to see it in others such as the traditional black or blue of the collection. While we’re dwelling on things that would be nice, it would also make sense to have a dedicated regatta timer on a watch designed for yacht racing, but on a practical level the bezel serves exactly the same purpose so there’s no use complaining too much.

All that’s left to touch on is the price. The Pelagos FXD Alinghi Red Bull Racing Edition chronograph is £4,250 and the time-only version is £3,070. That means these watch each earn the respective titles of most expensive and most accessible Pelagos currently available. They’re also not limited editions which is unusual for a special edition like this but is great news for anyone hoping to get their hands on one.