The Tudor Pelagos has transcended its dive watch origins over the course of the last several years, and it now serves as the Swiss brand’s lineup of contemporary sport/tool models. While divers still play a central role within the greater Pelagos collection, Tudor has more recently expanded the series to include other purpose-built models, and earlier this year in 2024, the Swiss manufacturer worked with members of the Tudor Pro Cycling Team to create the Tudor Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” as a bicycle-themed version of its decidedly modern sports watch.
While I certainly enjoy a good bike ride, I’d hardly call myself a proficient cyclist, and until just a couple of weeks ago, I hadn’t been on a bicycle in at least a few years. However, it is often said that one never forgets how to ride a bike, and I recently had to tap into my latent bike-riding prowess (and get myself a helmet) to attend one of Tudor’s events in Newport Beach, California. Along with having a chance to check out the Pelagos FXD Chrono Cycling Edition (ref. M25827KN-0001), I also had the opportunity to go on a 40-mile bike ride with members of the Tudor Pro Cycling Team and sit down with gold-medal Olympian and championship-winning Swiss cyclist Fabian Cancellara to ask him about the role of watches in today’s world of professional bike racing.
The original Tudor Pelagos has become a known quantity, although the Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” is only the second chronograph-equipped Pelagos that the brand has put forward, with the previous model being the regatta-themed Pelagos FXD Chrono Alinghi Red Bull Racing Edition that debuted last year in 2023. With that in mind, both of these watches exist as outliers within Tudor’s modern lineup, and each one is connected to a different professional racing team with features specifically tailored to its respective sport. In our initial news article about the Pelagos FXD Chrono Cycling Edition, I mention how creating tool watches is a fundamental part of Tudor’s identity, and while a cycling-themed chronograph is hardly an obvious decision (or one with historical precedent in Tudor’s catalog), it ultimately feels very true to the company’s core identity.
Although titanium serves as the go-to case material for the Tudor Pelagos collection, the Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” features a case that is constructed from carbon fiber composite with the FXD’s signature fixed bars connecting the two sides of its lugs. As with most carbon watches, the case of the Tudor Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” consists of a metal internal cylinder that houses the movement, with carbon composite forming the rest of its external structure. While the signed crown at 3 o’clock screws down to the case, the two pushers flanking it operate with a standard pump-style action (a welcome feature on a watch intended for cycling), although the Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” still offers 100 meters of water resistance, which should be more than enough to handle daily wear, and certainly anything you might encounter while riding a bicycle.
The crown and pushers on the Tudor Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” are crafted from black-finished titanium; however, the brand does not explicitly state the material used for its solid screw-down caseback. With that in mind, given that even the titanium Pelagos models use stainless steel for their casebacks, I’d imagine that the black-coated caseback on the Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” is also made from stainless steel. Protecting the dial of the watch is a gently domed sapphire crystal, and rather than being surrounded by a rotating countdown bezel like the regatta-themed Alinghi Red Bull Racing version, the Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” instead features a fixed bezel with an aluminum 60-minute insert that is slightly sloped to form a continuous curved profile with the outer rim of its domed crystal.
Regarding its dimensions, the Tudor Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” measures 43mm in diameter by 13.2mm thick (including the additional height of its domed crystal), and while the space between its fixed lugs is a standard 22mm, its lug-to-lug dimensions require a bit more explanation. When measured from the middle of its fixed lug bars, the case of the Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” comes in at 53mm in the lug-to-lug direction. However, the outer profile of the bars slightly curves away from the case, and if you were to measure the lugs directly before they extend into the bars, you would actually end up with a total lug-to-lug profile of 51mm. Additionally, while its carbon composite middle case helps to reduce weight, the Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” still uses one of the brand’s standard automatic chronograph movements, and it weighs more than other carbon-cased watches at approximately 60 grams (or 70 grams with its included strap).
Aside from being black, white, and red (the official colors of the Tudor Pro Cycling Team), the dial of the Tudor Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” follows the same fundamental layout as what can be found on the Alinghi Red Bull Racing version; however, its hour markers have been slightly shifted inward to create more room for an enlarged chapter ring that contains a tachymeter scale calibrated for cycling speeds. Similar to models such as the Tudor Black Bay Chrono, the Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” features a 45-minute counter with a date window at 6 o’clock, although it receives the square-shaped hour markers and snowflake hands that are characteristic of Tudor’s Pelagos collection. Additionally, the applied hour markers are crafted from solid blocks of a luminous ceramic composite material, and all of the hands and indexes emit a strong aqua-blue-colored glow in the dark.
Powering the Tudor Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” is the Swiss-made Caliber MT5813 automatic movement, which is based upon the architecture of the Breitling Caliber B01 and found inside Tudor’s other contemporary chronograph models. Running at a frequency of 28,800pvh (4 Hz) with a power reserve of 70 hours, the Tudor Manufacture Caliber MT5813 operates with a column wheel and a vertical clutch, and it also includes a silicon hairspring for additional resistance to magnetism and temperature fluctuations. As an official COSC-certified chronometer, the Tudor MT5813 is already guaranteed to keep time within the standards of -4/+6 seconds per day, although Tudor has its own in-house standards for timekeeping that are more stringent than what is required for COSC certification, and this brings the accuracy of its manufacture movements down to a highly respectable -2 to +4 seconds per day.
Completing the Tudor Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” is a black jacquard-woven fabric strap that features a simple pass-through design to accommodate the fixed bars between the lugs. Unlike most Pelagos FXD models that are paired with a strap that fastens with a hook-and-loop closure system (aka Velcro), the strap for the Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” features a more traditional design with two free-floating metal keepers and a chunky tang-style buckle that is signed with Tudor’s shield logo. Additionally, to match its dark gray carbon composite case and black-finished metal components, the buckle and keepers are given a black plating, and the all-black strap is easily the most understated and traditional option among the current Pelagos FXD lineup.
Since I didn’t have a chance to go hands-on with the Tudor Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” until after the event, I wore my trusty Garmin Vivoactive 5 for our 40-mile ride with the Tudor Pro Cycling Team, and this reminded me of the comprehensive functionality offered by today’s smartwatches. Not only was my Garmin tracking my location, speed, and distance, but it was also calculating various health-related metrics. Conversely, the Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” offers none of these high-tech features, and while its tachymeter scale is specifically calibrated for cycling speeds, its numerals are so small that I couldn’t possibly imagine using it in a racing environment. However, speaking with Swiss cycling champion Fabian Cancellara offered some additional insight about the role of watches in professional cycling, and this helped explain how a traditional mechanical timepiece like the Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” is intended to fit into a highly competitive performance-oriented world.
Just like aviation and scuba diving, digital devices have largely replaced analog instruments within the world of competitive bike racing, and while members of the Tudor Pro Cycling Team can often be spotted wearing the Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” during races, the watches are seldom actually used for performance-related purposes. As you would expect, many of today’s top professional riders use smartwatches from tech companies like Apple or Garmin to help them optimize their training, and since these digital devices are also capable of tapping into the biology of their wearers, the comprehensive data extracted from them can be used to analyze a wide range of metrics about a rider’s overall performance.
However, Fabian Cancellara was also quick to point out that he does not consider smartwatches to be “real watches” (a point of view that is shared by many watch enthusiasts), and while smartwatches are strictly seen as performance tools, the Tudor Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” is intended to offer the satisfying ownership of a high-end timepiece, while also being capable of existing within the world of competitive cycling. Along with mirroring the material used for the frames of racing bikes, the lightweight carbon composite case of the Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” is ideally suited for a sport where weight reduction is critical, and the model’s re-worked tachymeter scale allows it to be used as a battery-free backup for owners who want to keep tabs on their average speed during casual or impromptu rides.
When I asked Fabian Cancellara what features he would like to see on the next generation of cycling watches, he responded that the Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” is more-or-less perfect for its intended purpose, and a chronograph capable of providing information about average speed is pretty much the ideal platform. Since a mechanical timepiece will never be capable of the same functions as a smartwatch, it should not try to replicate such features, and with an official retail price of $5,275 USD, the Tudor Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” (ref. M25827KN-0001) ultimately exists in a completely different world. In many ways, the Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” can be seen as the bike-racing equivalent of an analog dive watch, and similar to how countless individuals enjoy mechanical divers because they are durable timepieces that allude to a love of ocean exploration, Tudor’s cycling-themed chronograph speaks to a penchant for bike riding while also offering features that have practical applications within its respective world. For more information on the Tudor Pelagos FXD Chrono “Cycling Edition” watch, please visit the brand’s website.
