Rolex changed what a wristwatch could be. The Oyster case made watches waterproof. The Perpetual rotor made them self-winding. The Submariner made them dive-rated. The Daytona timed races. The GMT-Master crossed time zones for Pan Am pilots. These are not just expensive objects — they are engineering milestones that shaped an entire industry, and every one of them has a production history worth documenting properly. That is what this project is for.
We kept running into the same problem: the good information is scattered across forum threads that get buried, auction archives behind paywalls, out-of-print books trading for more than the watches they describe, and dealer sites that disappear when the business closes. So we started consolidating it. Every claim here traces to a named source. Where sources contradict each other — and they do, constantly — both sides are shown. How this is built →
Reference library
Submariner
We started here because the Submariner is the reference that never lets you stop researching. Thirty-nine distinct references across seventy years of production. The 6204 showed up in 1953 with a 100m depth rating and no crown guards, and by the time you get to the current 126-series the watch has been through gilt dials, matte dials, aluminum bezels, ceramic bezels, acrylic crystals, sapphire crystals, and more bracelet configurations than most people realize exist. A single reference like the 5513 ran for 27 years and produced enough dial variants to fill its own taxonomy. We have 36 articles live — each one covers specs, movement history, dial variants, bracelets, and whatever the auction record actually says. More references are in progress.
Highlights:
- 6538 — the James Bond Submariner
- 5513 — 27-year production run, the broadest vintage reference
- 1680 — first Submariner Date, Red Sub and White Sub eras
- 16610 — the 23-year benchmark modern Submariner
- 116610LV — the "Hulk," now a modern collectible
- 114060 — the last 40mm no-date, "the last small Sub"