March 26th, 2026
The Legend of the Subcommander 74 Part 1: History of the Tudor 7016/0 and Tudor 9401/0 with the French Navy
The story of the Subcommander 74 is a journey through time and the deep blue sea. To understand this watch, we must go back many years to a time when people were just starting to explore the bottom of the ocean with self-contained breathing gear. This was a time of brave divers, clever inventors, and a search for tools that could survive in the dark, cold water. Water is the natural enemy of the movement that lives and drives the watch, so keeping it safe in this new world of deep water expeditions and dives were essential. For divers, a watch was more than just a way to see what time it was. It was a tool that could save their lives. Tudor was one of the companies that decided to take up the challenge in this new world of diving and a led to a partnership with the French Navy, that would lead to iconic watches designed for the real world and people who worked hard and took risks.
- The Vision of Hans Wilsdorf and the Birth of a Sister Brand
- The Marine Nationale and the Search for a Divers Tool
Table of Content
The Vision of Hans Wilsdorf and the Birth of a Sister Brand
In the early 1900s, a man named Hans Wilsdorf had a very big dream. He was the man who founded Rolex in 1905 and oversaw the invention of the Oyster case in 1926. This was the first watch case that was considered waterproof. It used a screw-down crown and caseback to keep water and dust away from the delicate gears inside. While Rolex became very successful, Hans Wilsdorf noticed something important. He realized that many people needed a watch that was just as reliable as a Rolex but did not cost as much money. He saw that soldiers, sailors, and adventurers could not always afford a Rolex, but they still needed a tool they could trust.
It began in 1926, when Hans Wilsdorf had a third-party company called Veuve de Philippe Hüther (a Swiss watch dealer and maker) register the trademark "The TUDOR" in Geneva, named after the famous royal dynasty in England. They would be able to test the market for a more affordable high-quality watch on his behalf. Hüther's house granted Wilsdorf the exclusive rights to use the name, but they technically held the registration. During this first decade, early Tudor watches were often manufactured using components supplied by Hüther with a simple signature on the dial. On October 15, 1936, the house of Veuve de Philippe Hüther officially transferred the brand to Hans Wilsdorf at which point he added the Tudor Rose to the dial—a symbol of its namesake representing strength and grace. Finally, in 1946, he officially established Montres TUDOR S.A. as a dedicated, independent corporation, separating it from the Rolex business structure while keeping the same technical standards.
It was around this time that Tudor watches would release a line of watches using the same Oyster cases that Rolex made famous, ensuring Tudor watches were just as waterproof and durable. However, to keep the price lower, he used movements made by other Swiss companies. While Rolex spent a lot of money making their own movements, Tudor used high-quality movements made by companies like ETA allowing it to be an accessible alternative.
After officially forming "Montres TUDOR S.A." in 1946, Wilsdorf began to experiment with ways to show the world that these watches were not just "budget Rolexes" but legendary tools in their own right. Hans Wilsdorf officially launched Montres Tudor S.A. in 1946, right after the world had gone through another major war. He knew that the world was changing and that people wanted tools that were ready for anything.
In 1952, Tudor achieved a major breakthrough with the launch of the Oyster Prince. For the first time, Wilsdorf allowed Tudor to share another of Rolex’s innovations: the self-winding rotor mechanism. To prove how tough this new watch was, 26 Tudor Oyster Princes (ref 7809) were issued to the members of the British North Greenland Expedition from 1952 to 1954. These brave explorers trekked across unexplored icy landscapes where temperatures dropped to as low as -87 degrees Fahrenheit. When the team returned, they had high praise for the watches, noting they maintained remarkable accuracy without ever needing to be wound by hand, even in the most savage conditions. This success in the Arctic set the stage for Tudor's next great challenge: the deep ocean.
Tudor Oyster Prince Ref. 7809
The Marine Nationale And The Search For a Divers Tool
Meanwhile, in 1940s France, two men named Jacques Cousteau and Émile Gagnan invented a device that allowed them to breathe underwater without being connected to a ship by a long hose using a tank of air that a diver could carry on their back, called the Aqua-Lung. Because of this invention, the divers of the French Navy, also known as the Marine Nationale, became the first navy in the world to have a large unit of combat divers. These divers had to swim deep into the ocean to do very dangerous work, like finding mines or going on clandestine missions.
Divers must always be mindful of time due to limited amount of air in the tanks combined with the need to surface slowly. If a diver surfaces too quickly, they risk decompression sickness which can lead to serious complications or even death. To stay safe, their watch must be able to track exactly how many minutes they have been underwater while allowing enough time to surface slowly. In 1956, a special research group in the French Navy called G.E.R.S. (Groupement d’Étude et de Recherches Sous-Marines) began looking for the perfect watch for their divers. They were located in a city called Toulon, a major naval base in the south of France.
Groupement d’Étude et de Recherches Sous-Marines
Image credit: Vincent Groizeleau from Mer et Mrine – "Du GRS au CEPHISMER : 80 ans de plongée et d’intervention sous la mer dans la flotte française" https://www.meretmarine.com/fr/defense/du-grs-au-cephismer-80-ans-de-plongee-et-d-intervention-sous-la-mer-dans-la-flotte-francaise
The divers at G.E.R.S. tested the watches rigorously. They took the watches Tudor sent and used them in salt water, mud, and the dark. They tested two models first: the reference 7922 and the reference 7923. The 7922 had an automatic movement while the 7923 was a manual watch. After testing them, the commander of the divers wrote a letter to Tudor. He said that the watches were "perfect" and that they worked "completely correctly". This was the start of a deep partnership that would last for more than twenty-five years.
The right watch is the Tudor Reference 7922 and the left watch is the Tudor Reference 7923.
Image credit: Tudor Sub – "THE FIRST TUDOR SUBMARINERS" https://www.tudorsub.com/tudorsubmariner7922/23/24
Conclusion of Part 1
This concludes Part 1 of “The Legend of the Subcommander 74”. In this opening chapter, we explored Tudor’s early development and the beginnings of its partnership with the French Navy.
To see how Tudor’s watches evolved—through changes in engineering, performance demands, and military use—into the iconic 7016/0, and to understand how the Blue Snowflake Tudor 7016/0 connects to our Subcommander 79, continue on to Part 2 of this logbook entry.
