Although the Rolex Submariner began its life in 1953 as a sturdy no-frills stainless steel dive watch, today, this famed diver is considered to be one of the world’s greatest luxury watches – while still very capable of plunging into the deep to accompany aquanauts. The Sub’s graduation from utilitarian to upscale no doubt began when Rolex introduced the very first Submariner in solid yellow gold. Nothing says fancy like armor made of shiny precious metal. Let’s find out which reference was the first Rolex Submariner gold watch and lay out the details. When your life depends on a limited tank of oxygen strapped to your back, you are naturally more concerned about the passing minutes rather than what day it is. Which explains why early dive models from the 1950s (Fifty Fathoms, Submariner, Seamaster 300, Breitling Superocean, etc.) didn’t worry about putting a date window on the already limited real estate of the dial. The First Yellow Gold Rolex Submariner Not only did Rolex make the Submariner ref. 1680 in stainless steel, but the company also manufactured a solid yellow gold Submariner 1680. It’s important to note that the first yellow Sub is sometimes simply called the yellow gold Submariner 1680 or the Submariner 1680/8; however, it is not the Submariner 16808 – that’s an entirely different generation. Back to the yellow gold Submariner Date 1680. Rolex’s first gold diver made its debut in 1969, flaunting an 18k yellow gold 40mm Oyster case fitted with a matching 18k yellow gold Oyster bracelet. Early examples of the Submariner ref. 1680/8 featured a rotating bezel with a black aluminum insert and a matching black dial.
The most important is its bezel, which has the most accurate Ceramic Bezel Range, its bezel markers are all engraved and have the same depth. About the bezel tooth, when you are rotating the bezel, you will find they are easy to grasp and operate.People always said the dial is easily used to spot fakes, yes that’s right, but for this replica Rolex, it is the most accurate green dial I have seen on all Submariner 116610LV replicas, the thickness of printing, date font, they are completed perfectly, especially the dial lume, it is superlume blue, very strong and beautiful at night. The pearl on the bezel has the same lume on dot hour markers and hands. Finally, the Rolex Submariner 116610 LV replica uses an Asian ETA 2813 movement, which is 21 jeweled, this is the only difference between it and other higher end replica Rolex Submariner 116610 LV watches that are sold over $400 US Dollars.Specification of Rolex 116610 LV Green Submariner Replica Watch Movement: Asian ETA 2813 Automatic Movement, 21 Jewels Case: 40.5mm*13mm, Solid 316F stainless steel Dial: Green, Blue Lume on Hour Markers and Hands Crystal: Sapphire, AR Coating on Cyclop Band: Brushed Stainless Steel Oyster Bracelet with Rolesor Clasp Back: Solid case back with Hollogram Bezel: Green Ceramic with Blue Lume Bezel Pearl, Uni-directional Rotating, inner bezel has ROLEX on rehaut. Movement Hack Feature: Yes Clasp: New Rolesor Clasp Date: At 3:00 position (2.5 Mag, Set via Crown) Today fortunately get a genuine green Submariner from my friend, because I own a replica one which I bought from a dealer online several years ago, the replica is V5 version from N, which is also called Noob factory in Chinese replica watch industry. So, next I am going to make a comparison between the replica and genuine watch.Having seen the pictures above, do you recognize which watch is genuine, and which one is the replica? Here, first the genuine has two different green colors on dial and bezel, Noob V5 replica Submariner has the same green color on bezel and dial. Second, the front crystal glass of the replica outwards too much, however, the genuine crystal is much lower.Let’s check the crown logo printing on the dial. The color of crown logo is a little darker than that of Noob V5, genuine crown looks more refined with thinner “matchstick”. The inner bezel engraving is also different.The lettering at 6 is almost the same. Some people might say that the replica has thinner font “1000ft=300m”.The comparison of bezel tooth. The upper is genuine, below is replica.The small crown on the buckle, honestly there is almost no difference. Take a closer look, the genuine has more textured crown and refined clasp engraving. The color of clasp engraving is darker on genuine.The engraving on the genuine is more clear and refined, the letters ROLEXS.A. on the replica are fuzzy.The date font looks the same, can’t find any defect on the replica.The biggest news at the beginning of October is that Noob has published their V10 Submariner, including 116610LN and 116610LV, two models are the most popular Submariner in our market. Upon V9, Noob updated a lot on this new V10 edition. I did not realize that Noob will publish the V10 edition so fast, I thought they will publish it in next years.
Today there is quite a high premium on original vintage pieces simply because they’re extremely rare and becoming increasingly harder to find. Decades ago, when people bought luxury watches like Rolex for example, it was perfectly normal for them to get the watch serviced, polished, or have parts replaced if you scratched or dented them up. The problem is that while they were done by the company with authentic later-era parts, they still weren’t original parts or features of the watch. Since this was such a common practice, today it’s really special – and highly valuable – if a vintage watch is totally original.When posed with the question of which watch to buy and when, every industry “expert” probably begins their answer with some variation of the same caveat: Buy for love, not for money. Watch collecting is a wild and unpredictable hobby. Auction prices for classic models have been known to hit eight figures (and then some), but most of the Rolex watches out there depreciate the moment you strap them on your wrist.I have a young friend who is ready to buy his first luxury watch. He’s been thinking about it for weeks (good boy), but every few days he calls me (bad boy) and labors the same point: He wants a watch that is an investment (even worse boy). There exists in modern watch collecting a problem: collectibility is now treated as a selling point. But the problem with everybody and their dogs knowing that something is collectible is that everybody and their dogs are quite likely to collect it.The most expensive wristwatch ever sold was the Rolex Daytona worn by Paul Newman himself. It fetched $17. million at a 2017 auction. That’s a pretty good price for a watch that was so unpopular when it was initially launched that it lingered on dealers’ shelves with relatively few actually making their way onto customers’ wrists. One of those wrists happened to be Paul Newman, who had reputedly been bought the watch by his wife, Joanne Woodward. And it isn’t that she made a sound investment, but rather her purchase created an investment piece by her gifting it to her stratospherically famous husband.
