The Rolex Air King Domino’s Pizza editions and Sea-Dweller Comex editions are highly collectible today, as Rolex rarely produces special pieces featuring company names or logos anymore. Following Rolex’s lead, its sister brand Tudor has been active in creating custom editions and collaboration pieces in recent years, especially with employee watch hobby groups at some of the world’s largest companies.
One notable example is the Tudor Black Bay 58 “Pirate” edition, created for an Apple employee watch group in 2022. The pirate flag design on the dial was inspired by Apple founder Steve Jobs’ famous quote: “It’s better to be a pirate than join the navy.” One of the 82-piece limited edition watches sold for $13,860 at a 2023 Christie’s auction.
Just 2–3 weeks ago, ahead of Christmas, some lucky watch enthusiasts at Google treated themselves to incredible gifts — a Tudor Pelagos 39 featuring a playful symbol associated with their company.
Let’s take a closer look at some of these remarkable collaboration pieces ordered by the timeline of their releases.
Black Bay 41 for Facebook Employee Watch Club - 70 pieces, 2017
Asher Rapkin and Gabe Reilly, founders of Collective Horology, shared the story of this intriguing piece on their website. Before founding Collective, an authorized dealer of independent watch brands, the duo worked at Facebook, now Meta. They spearheaded a project with Tudor in 2017 to create a custom watch for Facebook's employee watch group.
The most famous owner of this watch turned out to be John Mayer, as seen on his Hodinkee Talking Watches episode. A good friend of mine, also a watch enthusiast, owns one as well. Although he’s a Meta employee, he missed the original release and later purchased it from a former Facebook employee.
This piece can be considered the OG of Tudor’s collaborations with big tech companies. Its current market price is about 3-4 times the original price.
Black Bay 36 for Instagram Employees - 41 pieces, 2018
The Tudor Black Bay 36 with a blue dial was launched at Baselworld 2018, likely overshadowed by the Black Bay GMT and Black Bay 58 released at the same time. Still, it has gained no shortage of fans over the years, thanks to its stunning blue dial, medium case size, and simple, tool-like look and feel.
This custom piece for Instagram employees at Facebook might be one of the most collectible, given its very limited production and the Instagram camera logo on the dial. After all, we watch enthusiasts spend plenty of time on Instagram, don’t we?
Black Bay 58 for “Watches for Good” - 260 pieces, 2020
The Tudor Black Bay 58 is one of Tudor's most iconic and celebrated watches, combining vintage-inspired design with modern watchmaking expertise. It’s a smaller, more refined version of Tudor’s flagship Black Bay line, designed for enthusiasts who prefer a traditionally sized dive watch.
Watches for Good is a nonprofit organization of primarily Google employees with a goal of leveraging the power of watches to address hunger, education, and medicine. This collaboration piece features Google’s signature colors - blue, red, yellow, and green - subtly integrated around the 6 o’clock position.
Black Bay 58 for Apple Employee Watch Group - 82 pieces, 2022
While Steve Jobs was famously associated with a simple and highly legible Seiko quartz watch, the Apple employee group chose the trendy Black Bay 58 for their custom watches. They honored their founder with a symbol on the dial inspired by his iconic quote: “It’s better to be a pirate than join the navy.”
Breaking the rules in product development and design has been key to Apple’s tremendous success. The watch, embodying this rebellious spirit, is especially sought after today.
Black Bay 58 Blue for Amazon Employee Watch Group - 106 pieces, 2023
The details of this collaboration surfaced in two LinkedIn posts of all places (here and here). The project took three years to complete before finally being delivered one year ago. It looks fantastic – speaking as a long-time Amazon customer, I’d love to own one!
The blue dial of this dive watch features Amazon’s mascot, Peccy (short for peculiar), wearing a diving mask. Surrounding him are the words “Dive Deep,” one of Amazon’s leadership principles, along with the watch’s 200m depth rating. The case back showcases another Peccy and the iconic Amazon smile logo we all recognize.
Black Bay GMT for Delta Air Lines employees, 400+ pieces, 2024
The Rolex GMT Master was introduced in the 1950s as a response to Pan Am Airways' request for dual-time watches for their pilots. It’s fitting, then, that Tudor collaborated with Delta Air Lines to create some cool custom Black Bay GMT watches for its employees.
The Delta Air Lines widget is embossed on the dial in red at the 9 o’clock position. On the caseback, the official Delta Air Lines Centennial logo is engraved, commemorating a significant milestone in the airline’s history. More information can be found here.
Pelagos 39 Watches@ Edition Chrome Dino, 617 pieces, 2024
Finally, move over Black Bay, here comes Pelagos!
Watches@ is an employee interest group of Google employees of over 3000 participants. The group organizes various watch-related activities, including online presentations by brands and watchmakers, as well as in-person meetups at authorized dealers. There is also an internal marketplace for buying and trading watches, but with a strict rule: watches cannot be listed for more than their original cost. Profiting off fellow Googlers just isn’t considered “Googley.”
At the first glance, we see the Chrome Dino, fondly known as Stan, featured centrally on the dial. The Chrome Offline Dino is the hero of the simple browser game built into Google Chrome that appears when users attempt to access a web page while offline. You can also play directly via the URL “chrome://dino/” in a Chrome browser.
The game is surprisingly popular, with hundreds of millions of plays each month worldwide. At Google’s main campus in Mountain View, there is also a life-size statue of a Dino, a gift from Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
To the Watches@ group, the Dino resonated deeply – it was iconic, uniquely tied to Google, and a fun, fitting symbol for the group watch.
The case back features an engraving of the Chrome Dino in an underwater scene, surrounded by fish, a crab, kelp, and bubbles. It’s also numbered “xx/10^100,” a nod to Google’s parent company. The underwater theme complements the Pelagos 39 perfectly, as it’s a true deep-sea diver’s watch.
Last Words
The creation of collaboration watches is a recent trend that will surely continue in the near future. It’s a win-win-win for the watch enthusiast groups, the authorized dealers, and the watch brands. Tudor seems to be a leader in the number of such projects, thanks to the appeal and price range of its collections.
These fun and delightful limited editions, with custom symbols on the dials and casebacks, will undoubtedly become quite collectible and remain a bright spot in the watch market.
:) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz9HDSIr20x/
I know a lot of thought must into these. It is cool to see what comes out