Submariner

The Submariner was launched in 1953 as a professional tool for divers, at a time when scuba diving was moving from a military application to a sporting and industrial one. The very first examples, references 6204 and 6205, were already produced that year, but it was at the 1954 Basel watch fair that the Submariner was officially unveiled to the public, with a declared water resistance of 100 metres — at the time, the first wristwatch guaranteed waterproof to that depth.

Over the course of the 1950s and 60s the line evolved rapidly: reference 6538 (1958-1961), with its oversized crown and famous "Mercedes" hands, became the model worn by Sean Connery in his first four films as James Bond, doing no small amount to boost the Submariner's popularity well beyond the professional diving world. The following reference 5513, produced for almost three decades until 1990, cemented the line's now-iconic look, while in 1966 reference 1680 introduced the date function for the first time, along with the Cyclops lens on the crystal, giving rise to the "Submariner Date" variant alongside the no-date version.

Later references brought a steady increase in water resistance and refinement of materials: the 16610, produced from 1988 to 2010, pushed water resistance to 300 metres, while more recent generations introduced the so-called "Super Case" with reinforced lugs, the Oysterlock bracelet with Glidelock extension, and the Cerachrom ceramic bezel insert, first introduced on other Rolex models and later extended to the Submariner too. Today the line includes both the no-date version and the Submariner Date, both powered by Rolex's in-house Calibre 3235.