Rolex Submariner collector’s 101 – [Part 2]

2022-09-08

This is the second part of the Rolex Submariner collectors 101.
The big crown Submariners 6538
The Rolex Submariner 6538 is what a lot of people associate with vintage Big Crown Submariners. There are Two line and Four line versions. The 4 line has chronometer text on the dial, with various versions and placements of it, sometimes above the depth rating and sometimes below.

The last Big Crown 5510

In the 5510 you begin to see some slight differences in the dial versus the 6538 and you see the hash mark bezel from 0 to 15 minutes and the red triangle.
The last no Crown Guards 5508
The 5508 had sort of a wide production swath, we see cases made in 58 all the way to cases made in 62, and we see the differences from red triangle mark in 58 to no red triangle in 62 and an exclamation point dial thats supposed to indicate that theres less radiation coming from the watch.
Start of Crown Guard Era, 5512
With the end of the 5508, we closed the door on the first chapter in the Submariner, the no crown guards chapter, then we get the 5512. The very earliest of the 5512 is whats called the square crown guard.

It was a very distinctive, very industrial purpose-built design and theres very few known today. A number of these were shaved down what weve called Eagle beaks today, where Rolex presumably took a square crown guard watch and shaved it so it was easier to grab the crown and of course Rolex didnt want to do that with every watch so they switched to this pointed crown guard design.

Very few 5512 with red triangle inserts. They get to the pointed crown guard and they keep that design for a few years.
Once we go to pointy crown guards, then we have the chapter ring and then we make the jump to the four-lined dials. There are also the micro nuances that we see during this time like the neat font style where all the printing is together in the same color.

The more common version is where the superlative chronometer officially certified text is a slightly different color because it was presumably added after. The last 5512 is what we call a maxi dial. The plots are larger, its the last run of matte dials and this is a maxi mark 3 lollipop where you see the depth rating changes from the meters first to the feet first toward 1969-1970.

The Submariner has a long history, so we divided this guide into three comprehensive parts. Subscribe to our newsletter to find out first when the second part will be available.
BACK