April 1st, 2026
The Legend of the Subcommander 74 Part 2: The Evolution Towards the Blue Snowflake Tudor Ref. 7016/0 and Ref. 9401/0 and the Connection to Subcommander 74
In the last part of this logbook entry, we explored Tudor’s origins and the early partnership with the French Navy that was established. We now move into the next chapter of the story. This section traces how Tudor’s military-issued watches evolved in response to real operational demands withshifts in engineering, durability, legibility, and field performance that ultimately shaped the classic 7016/0. Here, we’ll follow the transition from Tudor’s early Submariner references to the models that defined an era, and uncover how the Tudor 7016/0 became the bridge to our own Subcommander 74.
- The Evolutionary Steps of the French Navy Divers
- The Functional Necessity of the Snowflake Hands
- Partial Hashed Diver Bezels Instead of Full Hashed Diver Bezels
- Why Brigade Created the Subcommander 74?
- Comparing the Subcommander 74 to the Vintage Legends
Table of Content
The Evolutionary Steps of the French Navy Divers
As the years went by, the French Navy and Tudor worked together to improve the watches based on feedback from real-life use. The first watches used by the Navy were "small crown" Submariners, called this because the crown was only 6 millimeters wide. Divers found the small crown was hard to turn when their hands were cold or when they were wearing thick gloves so they asked Tudor for a watch that was easier to use.
Tudor listened and created the reference 7924 in 1958. This watch had an 8-millimeter crown, which earned it the nickname "Big Crown". It also improved water resistance down to 200 meters, which was twice the depth as the first generation of watches. However, the divers noticed a new problem. Because the big crown stuck out so far from the side of the watch, it could be easily knocked against a rock or a ship. If the crown broke, the watch would no longer be waterproof.
Tudor Reference 7924
Image credit: Tudor Sub – "THE FIRST TUDOR SUBMARINERS" https://www.tudorsub.com/tudorsubmariner7922/23/24
To solve this, Tudor added crown guards to protect the crown from being hit in 1959 with the reference 7928. This new feature was favorably recieved by the French Navy and the 7928 became the watch they used for many years. These watches were ordered in batches by the French Navy and they became part of the French Navy's inventory of offical equipments, where it earned a place beside oxygen tanks themselves.
Tudor Reference 7928
Image credit: Tudor Sub – "7928" https://www.tudorsub.com/tudorsubmariner7928
Reference Number | Year Introduced | Notable Change | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
7922 | 1954 | First Tudor Submariner | Established the diver line |
7924 | 1958 | 8mm "Big Crown" | Easier to use with gloves |
7928 | 1959 | Added Crown Guards | Protected the crown from impacts |
7016 | 1969 | "Snowflake" hands | Improved visibility underwater |
9401 | 1975 | Upgraded to the ETA 2776, which ticked at 21,600 bph and added a hacking seconds hand | Added a hacking function |
Most of the time, the watches used by the Marine Nationale were standard watches that you could find in a catalog. They were not custom-designed, but chosen because they were robust and reliable. One thing that made them special was the engraving on the back. Starting in 1974, the Navy watchmakers began to mark the back of each watch with "M.N." and the year of issue. These markings are now famous among collectors because they tell the story of a watch that was actually used in the military.
The caseback of the first engraving using the M.N. format.
Image credit: Bulang&Sons – "Tudor's Prized MilSub - The Black MN74" https://bulangandsons.com/blogs/watch-talks/tudors-black-milsub-mn74?srsltid=AfmBOorEaLSGO4PpiQX13HleEcE4Trvor3bWMN-dDcGGFcdqwH2ao7bZ
The Functional Necessity of the Snowflake Hands
One of the most famous parts of a Tudor watch is the shape of its hands. If you look at a Subcommander 74 or a vintage Tudor diver, you will see an hour hand that has a large, square tip. This is referred to as a "Snowflake" hand because it looks a bit like a piece of falling snow. The origin of this design was another instance of form following function for the French Navy. The divers of the Marine Nationale brought a problem to Tudor in the late 1960s. They told Tudor that it was very hard to read the time in the dark and murky water of the ocean due to the style of Mercedes hands. They were too thin to hold enough lume to be legible and the lume would also fall out because the military divers were so rough with their equipment.
Tudor's engineers came up with a brilliant solution. They created a wide, block-faced hand that had a large square at the end. This large square gave them much more room to paint on a thick layer of lume. They also added a square to the second hand so divers could see at a glance that their watch was still running. These new Snowflake hands were more visible underwater.
Tudor did not stop with the hands. They also changed the markers on the dial. Instead of circles and triangles, they used squares and rectangles. This created a geometric look that made the dial easy to read. The divers could now read the the hour hand and the minute hands instantly, even if the water was cloudy. This was a very important safety feature because a confused diver could make a mistake and run out of air.
Partial Hashed Diver Bezels Instead of Full Hashed Diver Bezels
The numbers and lines on a watch's bezel are important for a diver to count how many minutes they have been underwater. Diver watches can either have partial hashes or full hashes. A partial hash bezel features individual one-minute markings only for the first 15 or 20 minutes of the bezel, while a full hash bezel features individual one-minute markings all the way around the 60-minute scale.
The difference between the watches used by the French Navy and the ones used by the British Royal Navy, comes down to the standards for their gear.
The British Ministry of Defence (MOD) had very strict rules for their military watches. For their famous Rolex "MilSub" (Ref. 5517), they required a bezel with full hashes believing this provided the maximum precise readability needed for their tactical divers in high-pressure situations.
The French Marine Nationale took a different path. Their government contracts were allowed to issue standard Tudor Submariners that anyone could buy at a jewelry store. These civilian watches featured partial hashes for only the first fifteen minutes of the bezel. Why did the French find this sufficient? It perfectly aligned with their diving doctrine.
French divers followed the MN90 decompression tables, which used 5-minute intervals to calculate safe "bottom time" (the total time spent at a specific depth). The partial hashes for the first 15 minutes were used specifically to time the decompression or safety stops, which are shorter operations that require minute-level precision. For the rest of the dive, the 5-minute markings were all they needed to follow their training tables. While some collectors today might find full hashes busier or more distracting, for the navies of the 1970s, it was simply a matter of two different philosophies for the same tool: custom precision for the British, and standard-issue reliability for the French.
Feature | French Navy (Marine Nationale) | British Navy (Royal Navy) |
|---|---|---|
Bezel Style | Partial hashes (first 15 mins) | Full hashes (all 60 mins) |
Procurement | Commercial catalog refs | Custom military specifications |
Timing doctrine | Focused on MN90 5-min intervals | Focused on individual minute precision |
Hand style | Snowflake (mostly) | Sword hands |
Why Brigade Created the Subcommander 74?
The history of these military watches is exciting, but it has led to a strange problem today. Because old "M.N." Snowflake watches are so rare and have such an incredible story, they have become very expensive. Some of them cost as much as $40,000! Because they are worth so much money, the people who own them are often afraid to wear them. They worry that if they scratch the watch or get it wet, they will lose a lot of value. These watches were born to be "savage" tools used in the ocean, but now many of them spend their lives in dark, locked safes.
At Brigade Watch Company, we believe watches should be tools, not museum pieces. Our mission is to ensure that classic, functional designs are accessible to everyone, not just those with huge bank accounts. We believe a watch's value shouldn't deter you from actually using it. If you like a design and want to wear it, you shouldn't be afraid to scratch it. That is the soul of a true tool watch.
At Brigade Watch Company, we believe watches should be tools, not museum pieces. Our mission is to ensure that classic, functional designs are accessible to everyone, not just those with huge bank accounts. We believe a watch's value shouldn't deter you from actually using it. If you like a design and want to wear it, you shouldn't be afraid to scratch it. That is the soul of a true tool watch.
Comparing the Subcommander 74 to the Vintage Legends
While the Subcommander 74 captures the spirit of the 1970s legends, it is built with modern machines and materials that often exceed the technical performance of the originals. Let’s look at how the modern Subcommander compares to the vintage Tudor reference 7016/0 and reference 9401/0.
The Heart: Movement Performance
The movement inside your watch determines its precision and the smoothness of its hands. The Tudor 7016/0 used the ETA 2483, which ticked at 18,000 beats per hour (bph). The 9401/0 later upgraded to the ETA 2776, which ticked at 21,600 bph and added a hacking function to stop the second hand for precise setting.
The Subcommander 74 uses a modern Sellita SW200-1b, which is a major performance step up. It runs at a frequency of 28,800 bph (4 Hz). This higher frequency is more accurate by averaging out minor timing errors and results in a much smoother, fluid sweep of the seconds hand across the dial. Furthermore, the SW200-1b features 26 jewels, which is one more than the vintage ETAs. This extra jewel is used to further reduce friction in the automatic winding system to ensure long-term durability.
The Armor: Steel and Crystal
Both the vintage references and the Subcommander 74 use 316L stainless steel. This surgical-grade steel was chosen then, as it is now, for its exceptional ability to resist rust and corrosion caused by salt water, making it the industry standard for high-performance diving tools.
The real technical evolution is found in the crystal. Vintage Tudors used acrylic (plastic) crystals, which were prone to deep scratches and required constant polishing. The Subcommander 74 features a double domed sapphire crystal. On the Mohs scale, which measures material hardness from 1 to 10, sapphire is ranked at 9, second only to diamond (10). This makes it virtually impossible to scratch in daily life. However, sapphire is technically tougher than diamond in terms of fracture resistance; while a diamond can be cleaved or shattered by a hard impact due to its crystal structure, sapphire is more resistant to breaking under a heavy blow, making it a safer and more reliable choice for an active tool watch.
The Light: Lume
In the 1970s, watches used radioactive Tritium for lume. Tritium is great for the brightness that it provides but it comes the disadvantage that over time, Tritium loses its chemical energy and stops glowing, often turning a yellow or brown color as it decays. The Subcommander 74 uses modern Swiss BGW9 Blue Lume. This material is non-radioactive and permanent, providing a high-contrast blue glow that will never fade and remains highly visible in the dark murky depths of the ocean.
Speifications | Tudor 7016/0 (1969) | Tudor 9401/0 (1975) | Subcommander 74 (Modern) |
|---|---|---|---|
Beat Rate | 18,000 bph | 21,600 bph | 28,800 bph |
Movement | ETA 2483 (non-hacking) | ETA 2776 (Hacking) | Sellita SW200-1b |
Crystal | Acrylic / Plastic | Acrylic / Plastic | Double Domed Sapphire (Mohs 9) |
Lume | Tritium | Tritium | Swiss BGW9 |
Jewel Count | 25 Jewels | 17/21/25 Jewels | 26 Jewels |
Case Metal | 316L Stainless Steel | 316L Stainless Steel | 316L Stainless Steel |
The Subcommander 74 is a salute to the pioneers of the deep and a promise to the modern explorer that their watch is ready for action. Wear it boldly.
Conclusion
This is it for part 2 of "The Legend of the Subcommander 74: logbook entry, where we explored the evolution of Tudor watches to the reference 7016/0 and how our Subcommander 74 connects it.
Comments
RN milsubs also had fixed bars.
