When the entrepreneurial Hans Wilsdorf created Tudor, he wanted to offer an affordable watch that would uphold the high reputation of its well-known sister brand, Rolex. And with the launch of the Tudor Oyster Prince in 1952, with its sophisticated waterproof ‘Oyster’ case and self-winding perpetual rotor mechanism, it would emphasise the connection between the two on their shared values of quality, precision and robustness.

Putting their reliability to the ultimate test, that year 26 Tudor Oyster Princes would embark on a British scientific expedition to Greenland organised by the Royal Navy. Equipped with their trusted timepieces, a team of 25 men, comprising the armed forces, merchant navy and civilian scientists, sailed from Deptford aboard the former Norwegian sealer Tottan, while another cargo ship, loaded with four Weasel tracked vehicles, sailed from Hull.

After collecting sledge dogs in South-West Greenland, the two ships moved on towards the north-east coast, where the RAF Short Sunderland aircraft lifted the expedition to the glacial Britannia Lake to set up base camp. Commander Simpson then led a party on dog sleds to establish the North Ice station about 230 miles to the west, where more than 86 tons of stores and equipment were air-dropped from two RAF Handley Page Hastings transport aircraft. Throughout it all the watches continued to show excellent performance, even in the most extreme of temperatures and conditions.

You can discover more about this fascinating piece of horological history first-hand at a special pop-up at Harrods until the end of November. Here, Tudor has taken over the atrium at the Fine Watch Room with an exhibition bringing to life the story of the British North Greenland Expedition, including an interactive historic module and scaled-down models of the Weasel tractor and Handley Page Hastings aircraft.

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