Sometimes all it takes is a new color to fall in love with a watch all over again. Meet the Tudor Pelagos, now in blue.

Back in 2013, Tudor released the Pelagos along with the modern cult-classic Black Bay, though the two couldn’t be more different. While the Black Bay plays the retro/vintage card and focuses on styling, the Pelagos is a proper dive watch with more features than the average wearer would ever need.

This year at Baselworld, Tudor presented their new North Flag collection with the first Tudor in-house movement (and no, it’s not just a rebranded Rolex movement). As one of their premium watches, Tudor also announced that the Pelagos was being re-released with the in-house movement. This means that the original black Pelagos colorway will be replaced by a new version with an in-house movement, along with a a blue variant.

What Tudor got absolutely right with this new Pelagos is the specific blue tone for the dial and bezel, which shifts from vibrant azure to a more subdued royal blue, depending on the lighting. Even more impressive is the fact they’ve managed to get a pretty close color match between the dial and ceramic bezel insert.

The combination of a striking color with a matte surface makes the three-dimensional aspect of the dial with its flange ring and applied luminescent markers stand out that much more. And even though the Pelagos isn’t supposed to be vintage-inspired like the models in Tudor’s Heritage line, the combination of blue with the shape of the markers and hands is reminiscent of some of my favorite vintage Tudor Submariner references such as the 94110.

My only real gripe with the dial, though much less bothersome in real life and one I can certainly live with is the overload of text on the bottom portion of the dial, which has gone from three lines to five to add in “Chronometer Officially Certified”.

Just like the original Pelagos from 2012, the satin-brushed titanium case measures 42mm wide and features a monobloc middle case, screw-down case back and crown, as well as a  helium escape valve at 9 o’clock that adds to the Pelagos’ depth rating of 500 meters. The only difference between this new “in-house” version and the original is that the steel caseback has been revised to accommodate the in-house movement, which doesn’t share the same proportions as the ETA-2892 movement used in the original.

And while it can’t be admired through the solid case, the in-house automatic movement features a power reserve of approximately 70 hours, instantaneous date change, and variable inertia oscillator with a silicon (or silicium as the French call it) balance spring. The movement is COSC certified.

The Tudor Pelagos comes with a rubber strap as well as a steel bracelet with one of the coolest features of any mechanical dive watch,  a spring-loaded automatically extension mechanism in the buckle that expands and retracts automatically.

And keeping with this diving instrument theme, the photoluminescence paint in the markers, hands and bezel isn’t blue just to match the rest of the watch (it’s also blue on the original black Pelagos), but because blue is the last color on the visible light spectrum to be readable at great depths.

The Tudor Pelagos in blue, as well as the black dial with the in-house movement should be available just in time for Summer, with a retail price of CHF 4’200 (Swiss Francs), and I seriously want one.

More information on www.tudorwatch.com