Tudor Caliber MT5602 Complete Guide

Tudor Caliber MT5602 Complete Guide

In 2015, Tudor released its first in-house caliber. This caliber was the MT5602.

This was a huge step for the company which had previously only used ETA off-the-shelf movements. There are several reasons why a brand chooses to invest in research and development of an in-house caliber because it’s certainly not a cheap process.

Having your own caliber gives you full control and full power. Furthermore, having your own caliber as a watch brand shows that you go above and beyond, and can offer a greater value proposition with your products. It makes the brand go from watch ”assembler” to watch manufacturer.

One of Tudor’s in-house calibers is the MT5602 and this is the one we are going to look closer at in this article.

 Tudor in-house caliber MT5602

This is a variant of the TUDOR Manufacture Calibre developed specifically to equip the Black Bay and the Black Bay Dark models. It displays hours, minutes, and seconds, and bears the reference MT5602, in which “MT” stands for “Manufacture TUDOR” and indicates that it is a manufacture movement.

The Tudor Caliber MT5602 is an automatic, analog, and self-winding movement, equipped with a bidirectional rotor. It has a variable inertia oscillator with a silicon balance spring as well as a traversing bridge. Like all of Tudor’s in-house calibers, it is a certified chronometer,  having passed the stringent tests of the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute.

The transversal bridge over the balance wheel will guarantee better resistance to shocks and the inertia balance wheel helps improve the watch’s precision.

The movement displays hours, minutes, and seconds, making it a basic movement with no additional complications. The movement has a thickness of 31,8mm, is equipped with 25 jewels, and operates with a frequency of 28800 bph. Because developing a brand-new in-house movement from scratch is so expensive, Tudor uses the MT5612 as a base for the caliber MT5602. This makes development costs a lot cheaper but it also means basing it on a tried and true caliber that Tudor knows works.

The Tudor Caliber MT5602 is Tudor’s most produced in-house caliber as it is used in Tudor’s most popular watch with manufacture movement – the Heritage Black Bay. Furthermore, the caliber is used in a large number of Heritage Black Bay models.

Tudor MT5602 vs ETA

The Tudor Heritage Black Bay used an ETA movement up until 2015 when Tudor discontinued the 79220 reference and replaced it with the 79230 reference. The major difference between the old and the new is of course that the latter is equipped with an in-house caliber, more specifically the Tudor MT5602.

Since the release of the new model, a lot of people have been on the fence about which model to choose. Should you get the old version Black Bay with a tried and true, yet basic, ETA movement, or should you get the new version featuring Tudor’s in-house caliber?

There is no right or wrong here, but the arguments for either of them are as follows:

New in-house version

• Straight-line of text on the dial
• Shield logo instead of rose logo
• New in-house caliber enhances the value proposition of this watch.
• Downside: the in-house caliber is not proven like the ETA.
• Rivet bracelet
• COSC certified

ETA version

• Slimmer thickness
• ”Smiley dial print”
• Old rose logo
• Non-rivet bracelet
• Not COSC certified
• Better serviceability. Cheaper to maintain and most watchmakers can work on this movement.

Tudor MT5602 specifications

• Jewels: 25
• Frequency: 28800 VPH
• Thickness:  31.8mm
• Diameter: 31.8mm
• Power reserve: 70 hours
• Balance spring: Silicon (anti-magnetic)
• COSC certification
• Additional: Variable inertia oscillator with silicon balance spring and a traversing bridge.