Some particulars about the double silver print variation 5508 dial.

A brief background on the thin cased 5508 non crown guard seems to be in order. The 5508 Submariner replaced the similar in appearance 6536 and 6536-1 with 1030 caliber. But for a short time these thin cased models were produced at the same time. A ball park production figure for the 5508 Submariner would be from late 1957 to 62. The foremost advantage which the 5508 model shared over the 6536 examples was that it housed the updated 1530 caliber. For a collector or watchmaker this 1530 caliber made it easier to maintain then the harder to find 1030 caliber parts.



The topic for this segment, will be about a very early chocolate color dial change 5508 model.

From my research this double silver rounded bottom coronet 5508 dial was a particularly an early one. I am not unfamiliar to this type of dial. I also owned an early 6536 thicker cased 1030 caliber Submariner with this style of dial. Being an early thicker cased 6536 with this type of rounded crown and double silver print dial made me wonder if at that time I had an early variant. Unfortunately, I sold the 6536 almost nine years ago not understanding rarity of this dial.

Being a low and early production dial I have seen a few more similar dial coronet configuration in my travels, one on an early 6542 GMT and a couple other early 5508 Subs. The 6542 and 5508's bore early serial # as well. All these models so far had sub 38xxxx serial numbers. Logically from what I have observed, this early 5508 two silver line dial was placed in early Sport's models for a few short years.


The early two silver line dial model (361xxx) serial has the very popular and desirable color change dial feature as well. It has turned to a nice medium chocolate color.


I will be focusing on a particularly early serial 361xxx non crown guard Submariner model. This 5508 SWISS gilt gloss dial with double silver print dial rounded bottom coronate, is quite a rare variation in the 5508 dial line up. See picture below for the dial coronate variation.

One will notice the more rounded dial coronate bottom and longer crown arms. The gold print fonts such as letters "R" non serif and "O" are unique on this 5508 variation


This depiction below is a dial coronate from the more ubiquitous 5508 dial with a flatter crown bottom and a lower crown arm ends. The letters "R" with serif and "O" are with gold print as well.

In the photo below we see the depth rating and the word Submariner both in sliver print, instead of the gold and sliver combination.


This feature of having silver print on these fonts are not common to 5508 dials. Below in the photo we see the more common SWISS dialed 5508 with a silver depth rating and gold Submariner font.