Rolex Submariner

Why We Love It Launched in 1953, the Submariner line is one of - if not the single most important timepiece designs in all of wristwatch history. For the purist collector, the no-date Reference 5512 is arguably the single most desirable matte dial variant. Great, honest examples are becoming a real challenge to source, and it takes us months of searching and plenty of passes before we'll ante up. So when we offer one, you can be sure it passes muster - and the example we have on offer here is a truly great and honest example, dating to circa 1966. This example features an excellent 39mm Oyster case with thick chamfers showing no signs of polish. Its matte black four line, Meters First dial shows no noteworthy blemishes, staining or spotting, and its luminescent indices and hands show a lovely cream patination. Paired with a clean fat font bezel insert and matching pip, this no-excuses 5512 checks all the boxes and is sure to capture the attention of collectors and aesthetes alike. If you've been looking for a collector-grade Sub for your collection, you've just found it. The Story The Submariner emerged at a time when oceanographer Jacques Cousteau exposed the world to the wonders of undersea exploration. Skin-diving as a sport became accessible to amateurs, and one by one watch brands—from Blancpain to Omega—brought out their own purpose-driven dive watches. Rolex was fortunate in that René Jeanneret, one of the company's directors, was a skin-diving enthusiast. This gave the Crown a unique insight into the development of their diving watch. They enlarged the Oyster case and made it thicker, offering added protection against pressure at depth, and capped the case with a rotating bezel. The dial they made black, a no-frills choice, and coated the hour plots and hands with a liberal amount of luminescent material. It was upon this template that all later references of Submariner would be modeled. Throughout the decades Rolex developed and improved the model, until by the mid-1960s the Submariner had become what it is today—a classic.