Pelagos LHD

The Pelagos LHD is a large titanium diving watch with its winding crown on the left. Tudor introduced it in 2016 for wear on the right wrist. Its black face, square hour markers and broad luminous hands belong to the regular Pelagos, as do the date and the rotating ring used to time a dive. Moving the crown changes how the watch is operated, not how the time is read.

Tudor's launch account illustrates an earlier use with a French naval photograph from 1961: a diver is wearing a Submariner upside down on his right wrist. In that position the crown is accessible from the left, and the rotating ring can still show elapsed minutes. Tudor later made left-crown watches for naval divers. The modern LHD revisits that arrangement without needing to turn the dial upside down.

The LHD's 42 mm case combines titanium with a steel back. Its factory depth rating is 500 metres, and a helium valve sits opposite the crown. That valve is for decompression after saturation diving, not a control needed for an ordinary swim. The titanium bracelet has a spring-loaded extension setting designed to respond as a diving suit compresses and expands underwater.

Against this rather specialised equipment, the dial introduces two small changes of colour. Its luminous material is cream instead of white, and the Pelagos name is printed in red. The date alternates too: even numbers are red and odd numbers black. This is what collectors mean by a “roulette” date wheel; there is no extra function to learn.

An automatic MT5612-LHD movement powers the watch, with about 70 hours of running reserve. A large individual number is engraved on the back. Tudor calls it a numbered series, not a limited edition: the number identifies a watch within production, rather than announcing that only a fixed number will ever exist.