Rolex 5508 and 1680

[Erpin]

I saw these two watches, a Rolex Submariner 5508 and 1680 on Ebay from the same seller. The seller said the 5508 has a lot of crazing on the dial but it doesn't look crazing and the model number stamped on the caseback looks tampered. The 1680 has a serial number of 5447501 but the number 5s have different fonts.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1958-Rare-Vi...4AAOSweuxWR2vP

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1978-Vintage...UAAOSwlV9WRPNR

[jban5]

On the 5508 dated to 1958, why would the "original papers" that come with it be for a ref 1011 dated 1963? I guess they are original papers.

Everything else is above my paygrade to give an opinion on but I see what you mean. When did Rolex start using colored (coated with teflon?) gears?

[Kingface66]

While that model number discrepancy is certainly confusing, it's hard to miss the rather severe crazing on that dial:

[themaninblack]

The 5508 looks completely normal to me, dial crazing is common, case back model number may have been gone over but it all looks correct as far as I can tell from photos. Watches can sit in stock before being sold, quite common especially in smaller stores.

[SLS]

I would guess that the lettering on the 1680 is varied because a flash was used on the picture. I also don't like that a 1680 has a 5512 case back.