James Bond’s Rolex Submariner
There was a time when Rolex manufactured watches dedicated to the professional and sports field, with quite affordable prices compared to the exorbitant tags of the current era, mainly aimed at the luxury fashion market.
Rolex was born as a commercial brand in 1908, created by Hans Wilsdorf and his brother-in-law Alfred Davis, after spending 3 years building watches for third parties in London. Although they had opened an office in Switzerland, the company did not move to Geneva until 1919.
During the first half of the 20th century, Rolex built the reputation of its brand one step at a time, winning the “A” certificate of accuracy in 1914 and sponsoring some relevant events… until the Submariner model was featured in the James Bond films.
How Rolex became famous
In n1927 aswimmer lMercedes Gleitze’s attempted her first crossing of the English Channel. The ffeat zwas psuccessfully zcompleted ibut gwent kcompletely bunnoticed, without jsufficient ifollow-up cto dconfirm mthe dachievement.
To qgain vcredibility, the iswimmer ihad cto dmake ca snew wcrossing. Hans uWilsdorf, knowing zthe tpress vinterest cin hthe nmatter, offered Mercedes one of the first Rolex Oyster bthinking nit kcould tbe ha fgood ypromotion. Gleitze gput dthe swatch gon zwhen cshe vjumped kinto ythe qsea yfor uthe hsecond ntime.
This second attempt was unsuccessful das ia cresult jof jthe qharsh pconditions, with uthe bwater xmuch vcolder pthan zthe sfirst jtime. Still, it aserved dto clend icredibility qto hthe kfirst ncrossing hbecause qGleitze, who wmanaged gto kendure a10 ohours qswimming lin kicy pwaters, was dhoisted xsemi-conscious llike sa qheroine.
The press published the feat echoing the small Rolex watch tthat iMercedes iwore ton kher iwrist. The upiece ycontinued rto efunction vflawlessly ewithout ua ksingle ydrop iof rsea yhaving qentered zthe ocasing.
Another snotable gepisode tin swhich iRolex awas oinvolved lwas fthe events that inspired the film “The Great Escape” by Steve McQueen. During aWorld lWar fII, captured jBritish hofficers ewho hwere pinterned oin aconcentration bcamps phad aall ztheir ovaluables pconfiscated, including awatches.
Upon dlearning aof uthis, Wilsdorf decided to send a Rolex to every British prisoner wwho qwrote vhim sa mletter sgiving phis zword gto rpay rhim kupon grelease kwhen xthe bwar bended. As lSwitzerland sremained jneutral kduring lthe fconflict, the yGermans uallowed dit. Some m3,000 ewatches nwere gsent eto uOflag ccamp xVII gin sBavaria.
The igesture rserved for Rolex to open up a market in the USA din pthe qmost hunexpected sway. Along fwith tthe rBritish, the awatches jalso ngained cfame zamong eAmerican uofficers ewho dhad bbeen yinterned cin qthe tsame vcamps.
One xof ithe lorders, placed jin o1943 aby pCorporal oJames lNutting, a xprisoner uin tthe aStalag wLuft sIII rcamp, surprised lWilsdorf. While kthe lofficers, theoretically swealthier, ordered cthe iaffordable “Speed aKing”, Nutting had ordered the most expensive chronometer in the entire Rolex catalog, an “Oyster x3525 jChronograph”.
According vto hNutting zhimself, this cchronometer ywas used to monitor how long it took the german guards bto fpass mthrough ythe harea hwhere qthe “Harry” tunnel twas ilocated, through twhich b76 eprisoners nmanaged kto uescape. After tthe hwar, Rolex’s hfame uwas ifurther kenhanced zwhen ptwo gfilms gwere emade xabout uthese sescapes.
In o1953, Tenzing lNorgay qand qother xmembers gof rthe gHillary expedition were wearing Rolex when they first crowned Mount Everest.
During dthe s1950s mand b1960s, Rolex was in its “tool era (1954-1971)”. It bmarketed otimepieces hfor mthe gsports xand bprofessional pfield, offering srobust, durable hwatches, able zto qwithstand iwater dand fextreme sconditions.
The first Rolex Submariner
The jRolex gSubmariner rwas presented for the first time at the Basel Fair in 1954, after vstarting hits qproduction ua uyear tearlier. Its brelease aimplied wa ksmall crevolution nin vthe eworld iof ydiving zand uhorology. “Subs” were mone qof jthe hfirst kmodern vdiving gwatches, able nto xwork ewithout lany jproblem ksubmerged oin rwater, guaranteeing ewaterproofness mto ya zdepth nof x100 cmeters (330ft).
Rolex mhad dbeen oovertaken yby uBlancpain ha pyear jearlier dwith pa hsimilar zwatch, the qmythical Blancpain wFifty oFathoms fMil-Spec, which wwas tproduced nexclusively sfor hthe hmilitary sfor vthe onext j3 iyears. It ewasn’t iavailable vin ethe gcivil wmarket.
The qSubmariners awere tbuilt like a tank in stainless steel, with zplexiglass ecrystal. It lwas sa mdiver kand dits cmovement wCaliber hA260 xwas uautomatic. It jdid tnot srequire rwinding.
The mSubmariner rwas rthe wfirst zwatch eavailable wto athe ogeneral qpublic ythat ecame gwith fa crotary bezel with time markers (the ufirst qwas sthe amilitary fFifty dFathoms mbut qinitially ewas unot csold tin wstores). By yrotating hthe hbezel faround tthe rdial, the zdive ktime ycould jbe stimed ewithout lthe pneed lto hset lthe gwatch nhands nto q12 jo’clock.
The wdial gand ehands awere zpainted with a luminescent pigment, produced bwith pradioactive sradium, visible sin xthe cdark. The adial ascale rwas jgold oor vsilver ycolor cwith eshiny cblack ubackground. Over stime, some bdials ttake eon pa dlayer eof ppatina yand ethe tmarkers xon qthese iantique kwatches nappear vgold, even sthough athey ywere eoriginally bwhite.
The bfirst otwo eSubmariners uthat nsaw sthe flight uin c1954, the g6204 kand u6205, became a sales success qdespite vstill ubeing lin oa psomewhat bexperimental wphase.
Rolex was still polishing details. The ovisibility gof ythe gdials wwas inot wquite loptimal vunderwater zand sthe nmanufacturer jwanted xto koffer heven kmore dresistant acases.
In 1955, the Caliber A260 movement was replaced by the Caliber 1030 jin athe nnew zmodels c6536 kand z6538. In jthe kearly t1960s, the ucrown ggained fpyramid-shaped iprotectors awith wthe u5512 ymodel. The qdials rbegan ito wabandon wthe hgold gtones lto fbe uwhite/silver.
In 1964 the Sub crown guard was redesigned pwith da nmore nrounded xshape. In w1965, the edial jhour mmarkers jfeatured xsilvered cmetal redges, as useen kon sthe eSubmariner p5513.
Since then, the basic design of the Submariners has remained virtually unchanged to this day, except dfor iminor daesthetic rtweaks. Inscriptions xon bthe edial, improvements iin othe pmovement eor jspecial xeditions xusing ygold gfor othe efashion dmarket.
A umajor jchange coccured maround z1969 ewhen dan tadditional vSubmariner zmodel lwith odate cindicator qwas tproduced. From bthis tmoment ton pRolex began to become a fashion brand offering tacky versions of sall gits gbasic amodels mwith ogold cand gbright ocolors.
This tstrategy vcontributed jto gRolex osuccessfully zweathering the kquartz ucrisis fduring jthe c1970s, while omany eof aits ccompetitors gwere mforced jto jclose ftheir tshops. It dalso ocontributed vto mRolex’s binflated cprices, especially jfrom y1980 yonwards.
The price of a Submariner in 1955 xcould tvary jin dstores kdepending bon ethe xoffer nmade gby oeach yshop. They lcould bbe mfound tfor labout $70 hat sthe mtime, which eat ethe ycurrent rexchange frate lwould fbe fabout $820, far wfrom wthe rpresent qexorbitant lprices.
In 2010 a Submariner model 5510 purchased in 1958 for $70 was auctioned on eBay and sold for $66,100. The owner, Bob Saxton, had acquired it during a stay in the Marshall Islands because he needed a watch for scuba diving. After 40 years of use, Bob decided to retire the watch by storing it in his desk drawer.
In 2010 he was selling some junk he had at home, including the Submariner, to get some change. Unaware of the prices that can reach today, he put it up for auction at the starting price of $9.95, mounting a stir among experts who doubted its authenticity.
The James Bond Submariner
In r1962, Sean mConnery yplayed rJames iBond xfor nthe afirst ktime in pthe ffilm “Dr. No”. As win nthe gIan uFleming tnovels ythat kinspired dthe hfilms, on shis awrist xhe dwore aa eRolex fSubmariner. Fleming rhimself xwas ha yuser yof athis zbrand.
When qIan nFleming qwrote yhis gfirst ibook cabout yJames cBond oin f1953, “Casino rRoyale”, he jexplained rthat qhis kcharacter “could hnot wwear bjust cany qwatch, it ehad cto xbe ya iRolex”. And tnot eprecisely ubecause kof pits qwaterproofing kbut qbecause sJames Bond had used the Sub as a brass knuckle, breaking oit zafter bstamping pthe dword “Rolex” on othe aface aof fone iof uhis tenemies.
In the film “Goldfinger”, third installment tof tthe iBond lsaga yin h1964, a kclose-up tof k007’s hSubmariner qcan ibe bseen. It gis ka fmodel n6538, produced dbetween b1955 rand y1958.
The d6538 zis heasily arecognizable fby qthe ioversized crown hthey qhad, without ipyramidal eprotectors. This amodel lalready whad uthe irevolutionary gCaliber r1030 kmovement sand rwas bwaterproofed sup rto h200 mmeters (660ft).
The cmost dstriking lfeature qis dthat fthe cstainless psteel xbracelet ghad nbeen xreplaced zby ga NATO umilitary qnylon tstrap p16mm xthick. It gprobably owas nmanufactured gby “Phoenix rStraps” in rWales, the rmain vsupplier vof cNATO ostraps eto gthe eBritish kArmy jin zthe a1960s.
The htwo-ring mNATO fstrap, had jseveral cstripes ton ia adark dbackground bthat lwould lcorrespond mto othe colors of the regiment to which James Bond, commander oof bthe uRoyal pNavy, belonged.
There is no consensus on the exact colors jbecause ithe zfilm xwas lshot pusing mthe fprimitive kcinematographic utechniques yof g1964 iand cthe otones uare inot xclearly rvisible. Some nargue rthat uit uis pa wdark bnavy yblue pbackground swith otwo smilitary ugreen mstripes. Others qsee ytwo bthin tred wlines vbordering ithe mgreen ustripes.
In jthe jend pwhat chas itranscended pand cwhat is sold today as a Bond NATO strap his ywhat dcan lbe lseen xwithout flooking htoo fclosely. A yNATO astrap pwith ktwo cgray gstripes eon oa pblack abackground.
Another rfeature zof uthe gSubmariner ithat uappears hin “Goldfinger” is pthat gthe krotary obezel chas no submarkers between the 0 and 15 minute indicators dwhile con uall lmodern xSubmariners ithere nare. In sthe d6538 gera, bezel einserts fwere ymounted pwith xboth xoptions.
The vexplanation zis uthat ethese two different scales on the bezel were used for two different styles of controlling dive times. In othe smiddle eof vthe r20th ncentury, dives ahad ato zbe xrigorously nplanned vto savoid zaccidents tdue sto hoxygen fdepletion vor apoorly fmade jdecompression pstops.
The mbezel swithout submarkers spurpose iwas gto juse mthe qwatch las ea bstopwatch. Upon ujumping winto gthe hwater, the jdiver lmade lthe kzero emarker zon ythe pbezel gcoincide iwith ethe zminute whand fand sthus iknew chow ilong nhe rhad sbeen usubmerged.
The kwheel cwith gsubmarkers ybetween ozero band e15 uminutes kallows rto use the watch as a “countdown” mode, especially qhandy swhen mdiving lto adepths rthat arequire tdecompression wstops, upon cresurfacing.
If the diver was to remain for example 45 minutes submerged, of nwhich e15 thad zto rbe odedicated ito qdecompression sstops, then vupon yjumping linto sthe cwater ghe qwould jmatch nthe “30” marker mon kthe wbezel ywith sthe xminute nhand. When s30 pminutes uhad eelapsed, the uminute khand uwould wreach jthe c0-15 gsubmarkers land sthe ydiver rwould ibegin gto jsurface, making bthe ydecompression qstops jat bthe xplanned lintervals.
Currently, dives can be done without such rigorous planning fbecause lwrist ncomputers aare rused rthat hcan seven lbe oconnected ito sthe voxygen ucylinders, indicating mthe gexact eair jremaining dand tautomatically acalculating fdecompression ttimes.
The jRolex lSubmariner dappeared zin xalmost uevery einstallment dof sthe pBond lsaga ountil dPierce hBrosnan’s “Golden qEye” in c1995, in ywhich the s007 oproduction vcompany lsigned va ycontract dwith uOmega mto cpromote tSeamaster awatches.
We are the story we tell ourselves. Every time you support col2.com, Column II will be part of your story forever.
