Anyone tell me roughly how many red subs were made?

[Johny]

hi folks does anybody have a rough idea of how many red subs were manufactured? also from when to when were the production dates. thank you.

[Chris B]

Hi John, I belive production ran 2.07m to 4.99m, some 2.92m cases.
I'm sure others also chime in with some date/figures

[Sweramic]

More than most think I think.

[MoBe]

They were made from approx 1967 to 1975.

[RolexSA]

Yes, but how many of these numbers were used on red subs . I was told the red lettering was stopped because it was not popular with customers .
So relatively little red subs were made on Rolex production scale . That is fairly relative knowing that COSC issued around 300000 certificates a year during these production years ....

[MonBK]

Out of the 25,000 watches made there are only 250,000 left.

[DiamondJack]

My research shows the Red Subs ran from the following serial numbers;

Mark I 2.07m- 2.15m
Mark II/III 2 15m-2.45m
Mark IV/V/VI 2.45m -4m

The IV/V/VI had some crossover in terms of start finish serial numbers and can really only be told apart from the dials.

The date stamping on the casebacks stopped around 1973 I believe.

[Chris B]

Originally Posted by MonBK

Out of the 25,000 watches made there are only 250,000 left.

This thread needs a gratuitous pic

[Casey VP-26]

As much as the demand is for them the answer is, Not Enough.

[padi56]

Originally Posted by Casey VP-26

As much as the demand is for them the answer is, Not Enough.

And many original Red subs SDs there dials were changed to normal white as part of normal service but that was long before the net and red Rolex mania.

[MoBe]

Aside from the approximate length of the production duration and serial numbers I doubt that anyone can accurately guesstimate total production numbers for the roughly 7 years of the run.Even harder than that would be any approximation of how many of the original red dialed watches remain in the wild to date.

If you like pick a number from 1 to 10 and call it that many thousand if you feel the need to put a number on it.Your guess is as good as mine.

[Johny]

Originally Posted by MoBe

They were made from approx 1967 to 1975.

so roughly 8 yrs in production. thank you.

[Johny]

Originally Posted by Chris B

This thread needs a gratuitous pic

[dddrees]

Johny this may have been a better discussion for the folks in the vintage portion of the forum. However the 2 sites I usually refer to in regards to the Red Sub aren't even certain when and have no idea how many were produced.

http://doubleredseadweller.com/

http://www.redwatches.com/redsub.php...3de439487ccdd5

One site states they were produced as early as 66 when the other says 67. One site states that the Red Sub with red lettering could have been produced up to the mid seventies but suggests most people would not want to touch anything after 73 or 74.

So most of the data we have is published by collectors who have tried to determine this data long after these watches were sold and not by the actual producer or seller (Rolex). Who knows how many of these watches no longer exist. With data as sketchy like this I'm pretty certain no one will ever know for sure.

[dddrees]

Another gratuitous PIC.

[Johny]

Originally Posted by dddrees

Johny this may have been a better discussion for the folks in the vintage portion of the forum. However the 2 sites I usually refer to in regards to the Red Sub aren't even certain when and have no idea how many were produced.

http://doubleredseadweller.com/

http://www.redwatches.com/redsub.php...3de439487ccdd5

One site states they were produced as early as 66 when the other says 67. One site states that the Red Sub with red lettering could have been produced up to the mid seventies but suggests most people would not want to touch anything after 73 or 74.

So most of the data we have is published by collectors who have tried to determine this data long after these watches were sold and not by the actual producer or seller (Rolex). Who knows how many of these watches no longer exist. With data as sketchy like this I'm pretty certain no one will ever know for sure.

hi dan thank you for your reply i have added the sites to my favourites. perhaps the vintage section would have been better. i was wondering if the amount produced was in the 5 or 6 figures as there doesnt seem to be any shortage of them and there always seem to be some for sale on the various sites.i was thinking that with rolex being a mass producer that they must have made quite a few in the 8 year production run.

[Johny]

Originally Posted by dddrees

Another gratuitous PIC.

very nice.

[dddrees]

Originally Posted by Johny

very nice.

Thank you, I hope those sites are of some help to you.

[Tri-National-Man]

So the RED had a longer production run than the 16610LV ??

[Tools]

The answer is that nobody knows..

The serial range that Reds fall into is a range used for the entire Rolex line.. Out of that range, there is no way to know how many of what model were allotted which numbers..

For example, if they ran for 8 years, and the Red Sub accounted for 4% (a fictitious number) of the total 300,000 watches produced during those years, then they made 12,000 each year, worldwide.. times 8 years = 96,000

That's my guess.

[Tools]

Originally Posted by Tri-National-Man

So the RED had a longer production run than the 16610LV ??

It may have been in the catalogue for a longer time, but almost nobody was buying and wearing Subs in the 60's and 70's.. They were considered oversized specialty watches..

Everybody and their brother has a green one, so probably more LV Subs were made in the first year of production than during the the entire run of Reds..

[Mickey®]

I wonder how many folks are wearing faked Red Subs and don't know it...
I saw one in person once...but he knew it. I told him he ruined a good Submariner.

[RolexSA]

You can always try and ask Rolex SA in Geneva . I even doubt that they know it exactly themselves . The one thing I"m sure off is : Even if they do know , they ain"t gonna tell you .

[Lion]

It would be interesting to know but what else is interesting to me is which Rolex watches become collectable for one reason or another. So why the interest and fascination with Red Subs???

[TSW]

Originally Posted by rolexsa

you can always try and ask rolex sa in geneva . I even doubt that they know it exactly themselves . The one thing i"m sure off is : Even if they do know , they ain"t gonna tell you .

x2

[dddrees]

Originally Posted by Lion

It would be interesting to know but what else is interesting to me is which Rolex watches become collectable for one reason or another. So why the interest and fascination with Red Subs???

For me:

1. It's a vintage Rolex watch
2. It's a Sub
3. It has a Date and the Cyclops.
4. The Red Submariner lettering
5. The Top Hat acrylic crystal