In this new and exciting series that started with the Rolex GMT-Master, we?re giving thumbnail histories and specs for some of the really great Rolex sports models. In these Claim to Fame pieces I will explain hopefully without verging into the realm of watch geek information overload?the highlights of what makes the specific model tick, specs wise, and give the readership a sniff of the cork of the model's history. 
Few watch lovers would need an introduction to the great Rolex Submariner, but for those of you who aren't dyed in the wool watch-a-holics, have no fear. This series is for you, after all.The Submariner was released to a receptive audience in 1954, the same year as the great Pilot's watch, the GMT-Master. But while the GMT-Master was meant to help pilots and other globe- trotting travelers conquer the friendly skies, the Submariner was designed to help scuba divers brave the equally forbidding world of the ocean's depths. Rolex had a leg up on the competition with their already famous waterproof Oyster case, so it was simply a matter of refining it to make it more suitable for the new sport of scuba.
In 1952 the Jacques Cousteau film "The Silent World" put Scuba (Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) on the map and introduced the sport to millions. Rolex was soon ready to meet the needs of diver's for a waterproof watch that could time the duration of dives and help divers monitor their air supply a crucial task with a margin for error of zero.
Rolex took the waterproof Oyster case and made it even more substantial and water tight and then fitted a rotating bezel marked up to 60 minutes in five minute blocks to help the diver time his dive. The bezel could be rotated so the beginning marker lined up with the watch minute hand and presto the modern dive watch was born. The first models were available with varying degrees of water resistance: 300 and 600 feet were both available for a few years. The higher rating proved more popular and endured for two decades before being supplanted in the 1980s by new sapphire crystal Submariners which were rated to 1000 feet.The Submariner proved popular, and its success was undoubtedly little harmed by the introduction of three magic words to the model's pedigree in the early 1960s: Bond:James Bond. Actor Sean Connery wore a Rolex Submariner in the wildly successful Bond movie franchise's crucial early years, cementing the Submariner's reputation as a superb men's sports watch for all time.
Over the years the watch saw incremental and very subtle evolutionary changes. Crown guards came in the early 1960s to prevent damage to that exposed piece of metal that was used to set the hands and wind it if needed, and a date feature became available in the late 1960s. Movements were refined and made more accurate with time and eventually the depth ratings were raised thanks to sapphire crystal technology in the 1980s. Issued to elite military commandos and combat divers as well as sold in untold numbers to the more prosaic "desk divers" among us, the watch is a classic. Through it all the watch has remained easily identifiable and little changed, at least externally. Maybe that was, and is, its greatest strength.
1954 - Submariner introduced at Basel Fair in Switzerland1962 - First appearance in James Bond film, Dr. No.1969 - Date feature added with Reference 16801960s -90s Submariners made for French Dive Company Comex1970s - Special Submariners manufactured for issue to Royal Navy divers in the UK1970s - Robert Redford wears his personally owned Submariner 1680 in the movies The Candidate and All the President's Men1980 - Steve McQueen wears his personally owned Submariner 5512 in the movie The HunterNice watch. I bought one simular to this on at http://www.santblanc.com and it was pristine perfect. Very nice Rolex!
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