Tudor “Marine Nationale” Snowflake Submariner

Description

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Tudor was commissioned by the French Navy to produce dive watches for military operations.  Beginning with the Tudor Submariner reference 7922 and later branching out to the various “Snowflake” models, these watches were engraved on the back “M.N”, for Marine Nationale, and a two-digit number indicating the year it was issued.  This Tudor MN Submariner, as seen on the engraving, was issued in 1980, and the provenance of which has been confirmed by in the “Ledger Books”, which was a ledger used by the French Navy watchmakers to keep record of the service on these watches.  According to the Ledger, this particular example was used by the Ecole de plonge, which was the diving school of the French Marine national base in Toulon.  A picture of the Ledger entry will be provided to the buyer.

This Tudor “M.N” Submariner is in great vintage condition, very well-preserved.  The case has been lightly polished in the past, but retains thick and even lugs and nice beveled edges.  The dial is immaculate, with no visible damage.  The original tritium lume remains present on both dial and hands, aged to a nice yellow color; the lume in the hands has been stabilized in the past in order to prevent loss, a very common practice on these watches, as the wide area where lume was applied often led to the easy cracking/loss of lume.