Rolex Sub: innovative or marketing legend?

[707soldier]

Both works for me

[locutus49]

Ditto.

Originally Posted by 707soldier

Both works for me

[Hay Ewe]

James Bond was a Commander in the Royal Navy, of a Submarine before joining the Secret Service section. So a Submariner would a reasonable watch!

I wasn't around in the 60s but was Connery wearing Broccolli's sub at the last minute instead of Fleming's Explorer really one of the main reasons why the Sub became so popular at that time? I suspect it might be a more retrospective thing.

Yes, I read that more than one place

I don't buy a watch based on what a bunch of people say on the internet. I buy because it flips a switch for me when I look at it

This

Do navy divers still get issued with dive watches nowadays? If so, which one?

I think it depends on the country / service / department / specalist
A while back there was on here, a thread about some SBS teams that had special DSSD and Rolex did a special engraving on the case back. Minimum order was 50 I think

Good thread, thanks.

[onlysteel]

From my understanding, it is clever marketing that made the submariner the icon. What happened was that Wilsdorf visited visited Blancpain and they showed him the watch they were working on and he comes back to Rolex and copies their design and is the first one to put it on the market. Rolex was working on the sub concurrently and independently with BP's 50Fathoms but the exterior was copied by Rolex and quickly taken to market.

Similar to Bill Gates in the 70s visiting IBM and he was a nobody and saw something called DOS and asked them what are you doing with it .. and IBM said, "nothing... you want it? take it.." and BG said "ok, here is $500 .. thank you very much..."

He was clever enough to know a good thing when he saw one and MS took off ... Same happened with Wilsdorf when he saw the 50Fathoms..

[cedargrove]

Originally Posted by onlysteel

From my understanding, it is clever marketing that made the submariner the icon. What happened was that Wilsdorf visited visited Blancpain and they showed him the watch they were working on and he comes back to Rolex and copies their design and is the first one to put it on the market. Rolex was working on the sub concurrently and independently with BP's 50Fathoms but the exterior was copied by Rolex and quickly taken to market.

That's utter crap.

The general design and requirements were issued by Cpt Maloubier of France and various manufactures produced models.

Blancpain developed and released theirs in 1953.

Rolex also developed theirs in 1953, however it spent much of the year being independently tested and was the only watch to initially meet depth requirements. Rolex then officially released the Sub in 1954.

However Rolex had already developed the Turn-o-graph with black rotating bezel in 1952 (released in early 1953). This TOG looks very similar to their Sub.

There is no way Rolex copied Blancpain on their design.

I also don't believe Blancain copied Rolex on the overall design, however BP's initial model came out with 3,6,9,12 hour models and a few years later switched to markers more similar to Rolex's triangle, bars and circles.

[Racerdj]

Both is my opinion.

[jshepard]

Originally Posted by cedargrove

That's utter crap.



The general design and requirements were issued by Cpt Maloubier of France and various manufactures produced models.



Blancpain developed and released theirs in 1953.



Rolex also developed theirs in 1953, however it spent much of the year being independently tested and was the only watch to initially meet depth requirements. Rolex then officially released the Sub in 1954.



However Rolex had already developed the Turn-o-graph with black rotating bezel in 1952 (released in early 1953). This TOG looks very similar to their Sub.



There is no way Rolex copied Blancpain on their design.



I also don't believe Blancain copied Rolex on the overall design, however BP's initial model came out with 3,6,9,12 hour models and a few years later switched to markers more similar to Rolex's triangle, bars and circles.

I too have never read that Rolex saw the design, copied it and beat Blancpain to it.

So if Rolex also developed in 1953 and was the only one to meet the depth requirements, are you suggesting that the Fifty Fathoms was released in 1953 without having tested their product and meeting depth requirements? That wouldn't seem like a very smart move on Blancpain.

http://www.watchtime.com/blog/dive-w...he-dive-watch/

According to the article above the rotating bezel has been around since the '20s with the Longines Weems.


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[cedargrove]

Originally Posted by jshepard

I too have never read that Rolex saw the design, copied it and beat Blancpain to it.

So if Rolex also developed in 1953 and was the only one to meet the depth requirements, are you suggesting that the Fifty Fathoms was released in 1953 without having tested their product and meeting depth requirements? That wouldn't seem like a very smart move on Blancpain.

http://www.watchtime.com/blog/dive-w...he-dive-watch/

According to the article above the rotating bezel has been around since the '20s with the Longines Weems.

It was another watchtime article that discussed the testing of various dive watches between May and October 1953, and the Sub was the only one that didn't show any moisture after being suspended at a depth of 100m. It didn't indicate whether the FF was among those being tested.

As for rotating bezels, Rolex also had one sometime in the 30s but looked very different from the TOG or Sub. Maloubier's specs were more specific to dive watches we see today.

[Headshrinker]

The Submariner was mentioned in a Chris Kyle interview. His wife now wears his, given to him by another SEAL, to represent the Navy's past. He said they are currently issued Casio watches for economic reasons.

[franchise1450]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/arielada...e-watch-maker/

This is more about the brand as a whole. Main point is that rolex is one of the most innovative watch companies in existence, if they weren't so effecient (and therefore make so many watches a year which allows reduced margins), a sub would probably cost double or more, basically you get a 5 figure watch that quality wise should cost a lot more. To me the brand, although not the most exclusive by any means, is probably the most important and relevant watch maker in the world.

If I'm not mistaken rolex dive watches have gone deeper than any other brand on earth, so they are a pioneer in this regard in particular, in waterproofing, movements, and many other categories as well

[cd5508]

My understanding is that Rolex introduced the #5508 at the Basel Watch Fair in 1958 (59?) and took it by storm ! Within a year or so there were several sub "influenced" watches by other makers.