This weekend, the 2024 Giro d’Italia will kick off in Italy, with the cyclists taking to the first stage to race 140 kilometers from Venaria Reale to Torino. While the famous Giro d’Italia was first run in 1909, this year will feature one notable addition: the Tudor Pro Cycling Team will represent the brand for all 3,400 kilometers of the grueling 21-stage race. It’s the young team’s first Grand Tour, and in honor of the team’s entry, Tudor has produced a special version of the Tudor Pelagos FXD Chrono called the Tudor Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition.” With a matte carbon case, a team-inspired colorway, a fixed 60-minute bezel, and a special cyclist-specific spin on the tachymeter scale, this new FXD Chronograph ports the formula of the Alinghi Red Bull Racing Edition chronograph while taking the whole show to the land and on two wheels.

At its core, this new FXD Chronograph is deeply similar to the preceding Red Bull edition, with a 43mm matte carbon case, an automatic chronograph movement, and the athletic focus common to the FXD lineup. The fixed-bar case structure is home to a black dial with red accents (both Tudor’s core colors and those of the Tudor Pro Cycling Team), and the colorway is adopted by the included black fabric strap. What is specific to this cycling-inspired evolution is the fixed 60-minute bezel, a reduction of water resistance to 100 meters (from 200), and the rehaut application of a cycling-specific tachymeter scale that is tuned for the speeds common to cycling, rather than those common to race cars. In use, the tachymeter scale allows the rider to calculate their average speed over a given distance.

Ticking inside, we find the same movement previously established by the first FXD Chronograph, Tudor’s MT5813. It’s an automatic 4Hz movement that is based on the Breitling B01 and offers 70 hours of power reserve supporting time, a date at six, and a maximum chronograph measure of 45 minutes. With COSC certification, the MT5813 is protected with 100 meters of water resistance and the chronograph function can be used in conjunction with a specialized tachymeter scale that is designed for cycling rather than lapping a race track.
For cycling fans, the Giro d’Italia is a big deal, and Tudor also functions as the official timekeeper for the event. With Tudor running its own pro cycling team since 2022 (and with the direct support of Fabian Cancellara), it was only a matter of time until the brand started participating in major events, and it makes perfect sense that a watch would be part of the mix. What I do find interesting is that the Pelagos – once exclusively the most toolish and pro-spec diving product that Tudor offered – has now found a growing secondary role as an extension of the brand’s sporting endeavors, be it on the sea with Alinghi Red Bull Racing, or now on land with the Giro d’Italia. That said, aside from the current omission of an FXD Chronograph made for the Visa Cash App Red Bull team, I think the FXD Chronograph is a good, if unexpected, home for both the sailing and the cycling programs. The watch is technical and lightweight while also offering a type of modernity that can’t be replicated by the Black Bay but also doesn’t feel so modern as to belie, well, the Tudor of it all. I don’t disagree with the move, but if we rewind a bit – less than a year, as the FXD Chronograph for Alinghi Red Bull was announced at the end of June 2023 – I simply wouldn’t have predicted this path for a chronograph version of the Pelagos, a watch that Tudor describes as “the ultimate modern-day military diving watch,” now seen here with half the water resistance and an entirely non-diving bezel execution.

Focusing more squarely on the watch at hand, this is an actual watch that you can buy, which is in direct contrast to the watches Tudor teased on Instagram yesterday for the Miami Grand Prix. As a genuine commercial product, I think that the FXD Chrono Cycling Edition further expands the confines of the Pelagos with a watch that isn’t even tangentially meant for use around water and I’d expect that to upset the Pelagos purists in the audience (myself included). That said, with no direct cycling or Giro d’Italia branding (unlike the design of the Alinghi Red Bull Chrono), if you’re willing to think outside the traditional confines of the Pelagos while also staying within the confines of Tudor’s modern lineup (no Heritage Chrono, no Fastrider line at all), I think the decision to go with the FXD rather than the Tudor Black Bay Chronograph makes logical sense. The FXD Chrono is already linked with an external racing program, and the lightweight nature of the carbon case is nicely aligned with the concerns (and material science) of pro cycling.

Perhaps the Pelagos remains the niche arm of Tudor’s lineup, and within that, the FXD is even more niche, and the Chrono deeper still. At that level, while the Pelly-purists might question the impetus of a non-diving Pelagos, this cycling-specialized model does make a good effort at forming a special model that leverages the Pelagos’ intense focus, but shifts it away from diving and towards a sport that the brand continues to take very seriously.