6204 case back - authenticity check

[Dudley1936]

Hello all,

I was shocked to find this ref. 6204 ("first Submariner") case back on an old Datejust of mine. Can anyone help with confirmation of authenticity?

Thanks as always!

[swish77]

Hmmmmm .... Where's the date/year stamp? If it were an authentic 6204 case back from the '50s, I'd expect to see that on there.

[Dudley1936]

Originally Posted by swish77

Hmmmmm .... Where's the date/year stamp? If it were an authentic 6204 case back from the '50s, I'd expect to see that on there.

Thanks for your interest! I wondered about the date stamp too. I was encouraged to see that mine looks EXACTLY like the one pictured in an article from Le Monde Edmond (Search: le-monde-edmond dot com in-depth-review-first-rolex-submariner-6204), and that the article (see the screenshot) indicates that this was the norm at the time.

Cheers,
Joel

[miamiclay]

As an aside, I’ve always assumed that what he refers to as the “Octopus” figure was a Rolex shout-out to the shape of their then-newish butterfly rotors, but idk if that’s actually so ...
.
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[swish77]

Originally Posted by Dudley1936

Thanks for your interest! I wondered about the date stamp too. I was encouraged to see that mine looks EXACTLY like the one pictured in an article from Le Monde Edmond (Search: le-monde-edmond dot com in-depth-review-first-rolex-submariner-6204), and that the article (see the screenshot) indicates that this was the norm at the time.

Cheers,
Joel

Maybe there were different versions, because some of the 6204 case backs definitely had date/year stamps. There are some other differences too, compared to the one you posted.