Tudor launches a carbon fiber automatic watch for the Tudor Pro Cycling Team

If you're into bike bling, we think this is a far more interesting choice than a set of oversized pulleys.

Swiss watch brand Tudor has released a carbon fiber watch specifically tailored to the needs of its Tudor Pro Cycling team, currently making its Grand Tour debut at the Giro d'Italia.

The new watch is a bike-specific edition of the existing Pelagos FXD Chrono, an automatic (self-winding) watch and stopwatch.

It is a Swiss luxury watch with a corresponding price. In fact, at £4,560 / 4850 CHF, it's one of the few things that makes high-end bike tech seem good value.

The watch has several bike-specific features that differentiate it from the standard version. The most obvious is the carbon composite housing. Carbon fiber is a material synonymous with performance cycling. Although Tudor hasn't released the watch's weight, it's likely a bit lighter than the usual stainless steel.

Of course, the timer (or “chronograph”) could be useful for keeping time on the bike, but there are a variety of more subtle functions as well. The case features fixed strap bars instead of the spring bars found on most watches, so there is no risk of the strap popping open while driving.

There is a spiral of printed numbers around the stopwatch that is designed to show how fast you are going based on a simple calculation of distance over time. It's called a tachymeter and is a common feature of motorsport-style watches. However, in this case, Tudor has adjusted the speed to suit cyclists – between 20km/h and 60km/h. It certainly won't match the precision of a GPS head unit, but it's a nice feature.

While this watch is tailored to the needs of cyclists in several ways, it is more a part of the cycling lifestyle than a piece of performance technology. Riders from the Tudor Pro Cycling Team, invited to the Giro for the first time this year, did not wear the watch during the stages, although they were seen at press conferences and registrations.

It may not make a marginal profit, but this is next-level luxury bike technology.

Further information about the watch can be found here.

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