Coming up for Air
Probably the most famous watch in the world, the Rolex Submariner gets a major makeover in 2020
Not just the most famous diver’s watch ever created, the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner, which debuted in 1953, is possibly the most recognised timepiece of all time. Practical and easy to read, it was designed less as an object to be coveted — the opposite to the veneration in which the Sub is held today — than as a reliable and robust tool for professionals. As that tool was something on which a diver’s life might depend, it was also designed to be highly legible in the depths of the ocean.
With a 38mm case — large for watches of the period — the first Submariner was waterproof to 10 bar (100 metres), a depth then considered remarkable but today regarded as the absolute minimum for a diver. Its dial and rotating bezel both featured an inverse triangle at the 12 o’clock apex, baton markers at 3, 6 and 9, and large dots to mark the remaining hours, with baton-shaped hands pointing the time. Although those design essentials have remained constant, changes over the years have included the option of a date window with Cyclops lens, and revisions to the case size, shape, lugs and bracelet, as well as the bezel, while water-depth resistance has increased exponentially. Naturally, over the years there’ve also been vast improvements in the calibres used to power the Submariner in terms of accuracy, reliability and power reserve.
For 2020, the Submariner has undergone major revisions, though to the untrained eye these may be barely discernible. Available as the Submariner (no-date) or Submariner Date, the watch now comes in a 41mm case (1mm larger than its predecessor), which also features slimmer lugs and a correspondingly wider three-link Oyster bracelet that wears comfortably on the wrist and appears to be more nicely integrated than its predecessors.
The new (no-date) Sub version echoes Rolex’s original diver by being available only in Oystersteel with black dial and bezel. The more popular Submariner Date, on the other hand, comes in seven material and colour variations, which are as follows: two in Oystersteel with a black dial, one with a bezel in black and the other in green (the latter commonly referred to among Sub-heads as “Kermit”; the all-green “Hulk” has, for the moment at least, been discontinued); a pair of two-tone models in Oystersteel and yellow gold, with dial and bezel combinations in black or blue; two in full yellow gold with dial-bezel colour combinations similar to those of the twotone watches; and one in full white gold with black dial and blue bezel.
Now boasting water resistance of up to 30 bar (300 metres) — and remember that no human has ever dived deeper than 308 metres, a feat that subsequently entailed a marathon 15-hour ascent back to the surface — the Submariner of 2020 could be said to be engineered far beyond the limits it’s likely to encounter. The Date version is powered by Rolex’s new Superlative Chronometer-certified calibre 3235 with Chronergy escapement, anti-magnetic Parachcrom hairspring and a power reserve now raised to 70 hours; the 3230 calibre in the no-date Submariner is essentially similar, but without the date module.
The latest in a long and estimable line of dive watches, which have come to define a category of timepieces that are as at home deep beneath the waves as paired with a business suit in a boardroom, the Submariner of 2020 is in every way a worthy successor to all those references that have gone before. More accurate and reliable, and with a significantly extended reserve of power, it’s also arguably even better looking and more desirable than ever. The king of divers still reigns unchallenged.
The Submariner has conmd e to define a category of timepieces that are as at home beneath the waves as they are in a boardroom