Sub vs rest of Rolex collection?

[Vamp]

Production wise would you say the Sub is produced less than DJs, but more than a SD, Daytona, and or GMT?

[herts9]

Production numbers are largely secretive

[dxbtousa]

Production numbers are mostly speculative, but if you look at collections, public appearance of the piece and forum topics; you would say the SUB is the highly produced piece of all time - its everywhere

[Chester01]

It used to be that way. Back in the 90’s when one walked into a jewelry store, one could always find a sub. Though I argue that the production is the same, what shifted is people’s tastes which used to be the DJ/DD in the 80’s and 90’s to the ss models as people became increasingly less comfortable with flashy and more formal watches. I think Rolex has not or will not shift there proportion from the DJ to the SS models. They can simply take the folks working on the ubiquitous DJ’s move more of those folks to the ss models to match the demand, but there is no incentive.

[Vamp]

So most believe subs are coming into ADs just as much as DJs, but there just selling at a much faster pace? I’m under the impression other super sought after SS models are produced less and in the long run may become more valuable as they’ll be less on the market eventually.

[TswaneNguni]

Percentages of manufacture according to trust instructions left by Wildsdorf .

Want more Subs manufactured as a percentage ?...forget it .A trust is pretty binding .

In retrospect genial by Wilsdorf .

[1William]

I think different markets want different watches. In the U.S. I think we are SS Sport but others are still on the DJ as the watch.

[Roddypeepa]

I’m on holiday at the moment and I’ve not seen one Sub, the whole fortnight apart from mine. I’ve only seen o e Rolex, a OP 34 in pink. Not one other sub. I hardly ever see them and maybe it’s different in USA but they are quite rare in the uk imho.


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[LeftCoastBias]

Originally Posted by Roddypeepa

I’m on holiday at the moment and I’ve not seen one Sub, the whole fortnight apart from mine. I’ve only seen o e Rolex, a OP 34 in pink. Not one other sub. I hardly ever see them and maybe it’s different in USA but they are quite rare in the uk imho.


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Where are you traveling at the moment?


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[Roddypeepa]

Originally Posted by LeftCoastBias

Where are you traveling at the moment?


- Sent via iPhone. Please excuse any typos or brevity in my message

Maldives


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[LeftCoastBias]

Originally Posted by Roddypeepa

Maldives


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That’s interesting. Whenever I’m traveling somewhere expensive, I see tons of subs.


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[Ravager135]

No one knows exact production numbers as others have said. In my 10+ years of collecting, my anecdotal observation is that ADs get Submariners in a very slightly increased amount than GMT-Master IIs. I only base this on my experiences when stainless steel models were sitting in ADs. Whenever I would ask about a Sub or GMT, the AD would have whatever GMTs they had in stock out on display, but there was typically an extra Sub or two waiting in the safe. All other professional models that weren't as popular typically came one at a time to an AD.

Just my experience and not grounded in any data.

[Mr.Rolex1]

Originally Posted by Vamp

Production wise would you say the Sub is produced less than DJs, but more than a SD, Daytona, and or GMT?

I think GMT and Sub production number would be very similar

[Vamp]

Again I just gotta believe with the Sub being the most quintessential/iconic watch in the line up they’d make it in higher numbers than say a Sea Dweller or even a Yatchmaster.
Though like people have said without exact numbers it’s impossible to tell.

[The Libertine]

Originally Posted by Vamp

Again I just gotta believe with the Sub being the most quintessential/iconic watch in the line up they’d make it in higher numbers than say a Sea Dweller or even a Yatchmaster.
Though like people have said without exact numbers it’s impossible to tell.

That would be a reasonable expectation; however, this is Rolex we’re talking about!

[Vamp]

Originally Posted by The Libertine

That would be a reasonable expectation; however, this is Rolex we’re talking about!

I mean, why they gotta be sooo difficult? lol

[drtii]

Anyone outside the Trust has no clue.

If I were to guess about production allocations one would assume the iconic Sub gets a larger split of production in sport-model-allocation, however, it probably happens based on lines not specific models.

For instance OP - DJ - SUB - Daytona, they're all lines. The individual models then get allocations from the total line allocation.

How many Hulks vs. White Dial OP 39's?

How many ND Subs vs. Platinum Daytona's?

If you ran a business and had a hard cap of 1m pieces per year you're going to make sure you produce items that are shown to sell. This leads me to believe OP and DJ's get the bulk of allocation.

I would even go as far as to use the 80/20 (Pareto Principle) on this and say that 80% of all mfg allocation goes to SS non-sport models, ladies and PM pieces.

Why would they do this? Because flipping it the other way would satiate demand. They're still going to sell the OP's and DJ's, and sprinkling in some PM pieces helps lift everything.

Allocating more than 20% of total production (200,000 units) to sports models really doesn't make a lot of sense when you want to keep demand high.

[Roddypeepa]

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[Justindo]

I would guess that the Submariner line is the distant second or maybe the close third most produced line after the Datejust line and maybe the Oyster Perpetual line. I would also guess that they produce more black dial Submariner Dates than all Sea-Dwellers, Daytonas, and GMTs combined.

[Vamp]

Originally Posted by Justindo

I would guess that the Submariner line is the distant second or maybe the close third most produced line after the Datejust line and maybe the Oyster Perpetual line. I would also guess that they produce more black dial Submariner Dates than all Sea-Dwellers, Daytonas, and GMTs combined.

I don’t think I’d disagree with you there. Funny thing is whenever I see subs I tend to see many more 5 digit subs on wrists than 6 digit. One million watches a year is a ton regardless!