This Dive Watch Is an Affordable Tudor Alternative That Loses the Brand’s Most Divisive Features

If you hate snowflake hands and faux rivets, this may be the diver for you.

Published 24 hours ago

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One of the hottest watches of the planet over the past year or so has been the Tudor Black Bay Chrono.

When the revamped “Baytona” first arrived in panda and reverse panda versions back in 2021, fans hailed it as a stylish and affordable alternative to the white-hot Rolex Daytona. But over the next couple of years, subsequent Tudor releases stole the spotlight from the chronograph, and the Black Bay Chrono almost became an afterthought in Tudor’s catalog.

More recently, however, Tudor has used the Baytona as a platform for its more experimental releases, including a carbon fiber-cased release for the Racing Bulls F1 team and, most notably, the Pink and Flamingo Blue releases that have become massively popular hype watches and injected new life into the line.

So if you like the Black Bay Chrono but find it a little too expensive — or you just can’t get past its divisive snowflake hands and faux rivets — then you may be interested in this new and unexpected alternative from small, independent Swiss brand Titoni.

a Titoni watch — Look again — this is not a Black Bay Chrono.

The Diet Baytona

Titoni’s new Baytona competitor is the Seascoper 300 Chronograph, and it seems pretty likely the brand’s designers took a peek at Tudor when penciling the watch’s lines.

Like the Black Bay Chrono, the Seascoper Chronograph features a bicompax layout with a 1/4-second minute track, a black-on-white date window replacing the index at 6:00 and the two chronograph registers that delete the indices at 3:00 and 9:00.

The indices are round and applied, with silver surrounds and white lume — just like on the Black Bay Chrono. The 12:00 index is trapezoidal instead of a Tudor triangle, offering some distinction between the brands.

two Titoni watches — You won’t find pink or Flamingo Blue, but Titoni does offer its Seascoper Chronograph with a blue or green dial in addition to black.

The stainless steel case is 42mm across, slightly bigger than the 41mm Tudor, and thicker at 15.5mm compared to Tudor’s 14.4mm thickness. But with that increased size comes an increase in water resistance, from 200 to 300m.

The screw-down pushers recall the Baytona, as does the oversized crown, which features an engraving of Titoni’s plum blossom logo. The Baytona also features a flower on its crown: the old-school Tudor rose logo.

The general case shape is pretty different overall, with the Titoni sporting longer, straighter lugs and protecting its crown with crown guards. The bracelet is a mostly brushed, three-link, Oyster-style affair, and there is an on-the-fly micro-adjustment built into the clasp similar to the Baytona’s T-Fit clasp. Though on the Titoni, adjustments can be made while wearing the watch by pressing the button logo on the clasp.

the back of a Titoni watch — The Seascoper’s bracelet features on-the-fly microadjustment that’s operated by pushing a button on the outside of the clasp.

The bezel represents the biggest aesthetic difference between the Titoni and Tudor. The former has a dive-style bezel with a ceramic insert, while the latter opts for an aluminum insert with a tachymeter.

Inside, the watches are fairly comparable, too, even if Tudor comes out comfortably ahead in the end. Rolex’s sibling uses the manufacture calibre MT5813, which is a COSC-certified automatic chronograph with a column wheel and 70-hour power reserve.

The Seascoper, meanwhile, uses a Sellita SS510 BH, which is also a COSC-certified automatic but uses a cam system in place of a column wheel and only offers 48 hours of power when fully wound.

No Haters

I personally like Tudor’s snowflake hands and the faux rivets the brand uses on some of its bracelets. I think the former gives Tudor watches a distinctive look — not many brands have their own signature handset — and I dig the retro vibes of the latter.

But these two design elements are fairly controversial. A lot of enthusiasts, even those who profess to love Tudor, absolutely hate one or both of them. The Black Bay Chrono has snowflake hands, and it has faux-rivets on the three-link bracelet. The Titoni has neither, so I can see it appealing to haters of those styles.

The Titoni should also garner a look from anyone who likes the look of the Baytona but doesn’t have $5,950 in the budget to get one. The Seascoper 300 Chronograph, while not a cheap watch by any stretch, comes in at just over half the price of the Tudor with an SRP of $3,220.

Titoni Seascoper 300 Chronograph

Specs

Case Size	42mm
Movement	Sellita Cal. SW510 BH automatic chronograph
Water Resistance	300m

$3,220 at Titoni

About the Author:

Johnny Brayson is an editor at Gear Patrol mostly covering watches. He enjoys watches that are packed with blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em details and believes nearly every watch could stand to be a tad smaller.