Month: December 2017

The Red Submariner is absolutely one of the most easily recognizable vintage references and is frequently considered an entry point into serious vintage replica Rolex collecting, while it is not the oldest or most rare iteration of the Submariner that Rolex has ever produced. Occupying a crucial place within the history of Rolex’s legendary dive watch, the Red Submariner possesses a number of defining characteristics that help distinguish it from other Submariner references and make it a highly sought-after prize for collectors.
The focal point of any watch is its dial, and for the Red Submariner, the dial is the most defining feature of the whole watch. Different from the later-era examples of the Submariner that received matte black dials with all-white text, early production runs of the model received dials that featured the Submariner name printed in red.
The cosmetic difference between a Red Submariner and a later-era model with all-white text is rather minor. However, since every subsequent rendition of the Submariner has been full of an entirely black and white dial, the bright red color of the Submariner name instantly stands out against the monochromatic color profile of the watch, and immediately identifies the Red Submariner as an early iteration of the legendary replica watch.
The watch was the first Submariner to ever be produced with a date complication – a feature that has now become nearly ubiquitous among Rolex’s various dive fake watches. Although the first Rolex Submariner references displayed nothing more than the time of day, the watch marks a turning point in the Submariner’s history where Rolex’s iconic dive watch started to take its contemporary form. As the Red Submariner represents the earliest iteration of the reference 1680, it can be treated as the first Submariner to ever feature a date complication.
Rolex Replicas added their Cyclops magnification lens to the crystal of the model to accompany the addition of the date display at the 3 o’clock location. At the time of its launch, the Rolex watch was still manufacturing its crystals from acrylic, and so the model received a plastic crystal with a Cyclops magnification lens on its surface. All subsequent date displaying, Submariner left the Rolex factory with flat crystals made from synthetic sapphire, making the watch completely unique, as the only date-displaying Submariner to ever been fitted with an acrylic crystal.
When the Rolex Submariner was initially released, it originally left the Rolex factory with bezel inserts that featured a slightly thicker font than those found on later-era releases of the watch. These bezels, which we now refer to as “fat font” inserts, were prone to fading and discoloration over time and were frequently replaced with newer, “thin font” inserts by Rolex Service Centers when Red replica watches came in for repairs and regularly scheduled maintenance.