In many ways, this is the modern milsub. This is a Black Bay 58 made in very small numbers by Tudor for the French Commandement Des Opérations Spéciales (Special Forces Command, or COS) and only ever made available to active personnel. From the dial, the distinction is extremely subtle, only its script at 6 has been changed to blue, white, and red to mirror the French Flag. Flip it over, and the caseback is engraved with the command's patch and operator number.
The COS are under direct control of the President of the French Republic and responsible for joint operations, modeled after US SOCOM and the British UKSF after the first Gulf War. The command is responsible for ~4300 highly trained operators. Their known operations have centered mostly in Africa and the Middle East since formation. In Africa, they helped counter Somali pirates, supported the Nigerien Army, responded to terrorism in Burkina Faso and the attack on the Radisson Blue de Bamako in Mali, and helped free 4 hostages in the Gorom-Gorom fight. Through 2014-19 COS operated in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan, most notably in the Battle of Mosul and in tracking down al-Baghdadi. This is not an exhaustive list but meant to help describe their roles and activities since formation: largely intelligence, counter-terrorism, direct action, and unconventional warfare.
Tudor has made two runs of Black Bay for the COS, the first in 2017, 112 examples of the Black Bay 41. The second run was in 330 examples of the Black Bay 58 and this is the first time that one has been offered publicly. Tudor has become the outlet for Rolex SA to still equip military personnel with watches today. These 'Unit Watches' are not issued, but modified according to the unit's preference and made available only to unit personnel in small numbers to purchase.
Very few of these watches made for Special Operations communities have ever surfaced in the market. Know examples include Canadian JTF2 Pelagos, US Secret Service Hawkeye Pelagos, UK Royalty and Specialist Protection Unit Black Bay, Commando Hubert Pelagos FXD Prototypes, and this French COS Black Bay. As issued watches don't really exist in the traditional sense anymore and these tend to trade hands between friends, all 'Unit Watches' are highly sought by collectors. You can count on one hand the number of opportunities to acquire one in the last decade.
