Rolex Submariner Date 'Red Sub'

In the late 1960s, Rolex made a tiny change to the Submariner that, forty years on, sends ripples through the vintage Rolex collector community. We mean, of course, a single line of red text on the Reference 1680 Submariner, a watch that has gone down in history as the “Red Sub.”  From the late 1960s to the late 1970s, there were seven different dial variations of “Red Sub,” being dubbed by collectors as “Mark I” through “Mark VIII” dials. Generally, these examples vary in the smallest of ways, perhaps the result of being from different printings  - or even from different dial manufacturers altogether - with this example being a so-called Mark "V". What unites all of them is that tiny splash of red on the Submariner printing just under the center post. At the close of the 1970s, Rolex began phasing out this feature. It was a gradual process, from market to market. Additionally, since many of these watches had been purchased by professional divers or servicemen, the dials with the red printing were often exchanged for dials with all-white printing during the course of a routine service. As a result, examples that survive with the red printing intact are rare and infinitely desirable!