Probably the rarest rail dial sapphire crystal Explorer II version..

I have been collecting and researching the 16550 Explorer II for quite a while.
About five or six years ago an interesting Explorer II surfaced.
I never really considered the 16570 model as a key must have collectable until I came across one with a rail dial with black markers.

To put it in perspective the 16550 silver marker rail dial was the standard key Explorer II to own during the early 2000.
Then the non rail silver marker 16550 was placed on the map. This 16550 dial variation was produced along side the rail dial, besides not having the two sentence alignment, the layout with no "hyphens" in the phrase was different.

I believe that this non rail sentence alignment variation is rarer because it appears to be produced in lower numbers then the silver marker rail dial 16550, and can be found up until "R" serial.

Finally, the less known and much rarer 16750 rail with black markers surfaced and became evident among collectors during the past few years. So far I have personally seen three of this 16750 dial variation possibly serial range from "R" to "N".

I have concluded that cream dial color comes in different shades on all 16550's with silver markers, and seems to hold true as well on early 16570 dials. So in my opinion from my research the Explorer II cream dial color is not exclusive to the rail 16550 variant. As seen in the pictures.

The picture below depicts three dial types regarding the Explorer II. The left dial is the more commonly found rail, the dial on the right is the illusive non rail with silver marker variant, and the bottom dial is the ultra rare rail alignment with black markers.

The illusive a 16570 E serial rail dial with black markers. In my opinion the smallest produced Explorer II dial from the 1980's-1990's. If one finds this dial variation, it is quite a coup.

Different cream shades on dials..Some darker and lighter.



In this picture we have a rail and non rail silver marker 16550's.


R serial with box and papers.

The rare first version 1655 orange straight hand Explorer II

The rare first version 1655 orange straight hand Explorer II is an interesting watch. A few elements make the first 1655 version a difficult watch to find in correct configuration. Dial, bezel, early case back, and straight second hand make it quit a coup to find an intact early 1655

The first generation dial is unique to the 1970-72 year model.
The coronate or crown on the first version dial print has a different shape to it. One can notice a small opining at the bottom side and is more centered over the letter "L" , but still resembles the frog foot design.


The bezel numbers are with smaller thick fonts on the first 1655 version, and are situated more towards the crystal area rather then being closer to the center of the bezel.

The sweep second hand is also unique to the early 1655 versions. Upon a closer look, one will notice that these hands are not just a white painted Datejust sweep second hand. The 1655 second is square tipped non tapered design with a specific length to it.

The case backs featured on the early 1655 models have a punched and dated numbers on them.





The second version of the 1655 orange luminous dot hand Explorer II from the year 1973-74

A 1675 with the very rare and sought after all blue and all copper insert.

The insert numbers are a real silver and not faded to a light gold color as most early inserts become. Compare the all blue 1675 GMT insert numbers to the all copper GMT insert.


The early all gold inserts had fat number fonts..Compare the number "8" for example on the all gold faded 1675 with the copper insert.
Now as far as the silver color, the early fonts in the picture are more of a light gold cream from fade. But copper is a real no fade silver and is an entirely a different insert when one looks closer. The serifs are different as well on the two inserts, as one can see for example in the number "4".
The all copper insert has the number fonts in silver not gold..BIG differance..same as the all blue bezel. These 1675 GMT inserts I believe were used in the late 1960's and 1970's on the two tone model 1675 gold bezel and SS cases. But maybe also found on just an all SS 1675 GMT.

The all blue GMT insert from my research was issued on military 1675's at first..

But with surplus the leftover all blue bezels were given to Rolex service centers and made available as an option to service customers in the 1970's till the stock ran out. I was also told by Rolex NYC that the service center watchmaker years ago when I submitted my 1675 for service, that an in-house parts book had the all blue Tudor Sub and Rolex GMT bezel pictured. One interesting note, was that Tudor had an all blue bezel on the 1970 Tudor Sub and Monte Carlo chrono model.

 

One can also find GMT inserts in purple

The look at unique Milgauss 1019

The Milgauss 1019 Rolex is a very unique watch.
Used by professionals working in highly magnetic atmospheres such as in nuclear industries which yielded a strong magnetic fields. A need came about to have a watch movement be able to handle these extreme conditions. Rolex was up to the challenge and created a iron cage to house and shield the caliber from any magnetic harm. A simple synopses of this model revels to us that only two dials were ever issued for this reference. A silver and black dial was the only chosen options a buyer had on this model.

The early models had the 1/5 hash markers on the dial, while later dials were changed over to a 1/2 hash markers. This dial is the rail dial version..Very rare to find a 1019 rail dial.

1/2 hash markers



1/2 hash markers


A picture of a rail and non rail 1019 dail.


rail dials


The 1019 featured two types of minute and hour hands. The early 1019 hands featured a gloss polished hour and minute hand built out of an antimagnetic material. The later hands had an aluminum matte textured hour and minute hand. Oddly enough the 1019 straight second hand with a red arrow tip and apparently been used on the early and later 1019 model run.

Three odd items which intrigued me were, the fact that the reference 1019 used a small 5.3 mm rather then the bigger 6.mm crown. As well as the large tropic # 32 crystal. One of the largest plastic Rolex diameter crystal in the Rolex family. I believe this case design housed the movement top iron plate and resulted in a bigger crystal to cover the extra case size. The last odd fact about the 1019 transpired in the "M" letter being stamped on the caliber plate, only found on the 1019 caliber.


The 1019 rotor bridge had a specific 1580 stamp instead of the ubiquitous 1570 numbers.












One other notion regarding the 1019 dial variations, a rail 1019 dial does exist and is correct. See the comparison of a rail 1665 and 16550 to the 1019 rail dial in the picture below. Same font alignment and layout. No disputing this fact that the 1019 rail dial exists.

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.

The matte dialed 5513

This post is a small summary regarding the 5513 round crown guard model for now, and not an in depth perspective of the 5513 model. I will omit the military, double named dials, and other special versions of the matte 5513 model. I will add more info on these adaptations as time passes.

The Rolex non date Submariner is arguable the one of the most iconic Rolex model in the world. But for most Submariner vintage collectors their first vintage purchase was a 5513 non date round guard Submariner model. The term round crown guard originates from the crown guard basically being round at the top area near the crown seat, rather then ending up in a point or peck as on the first version of 5513 cases.


The more affordable examples from the 5513 model line are the matte dialed round crown guard versions appearing towards the mid 1960's. This was a transition period from the gloss gold gilt dial era to the matte versions.

The first and more desirable matte dial version was the 200m/660ft version (1965-71), then followed by the more generic and ubiquitous 660ft/200m dial. As with many Rolex dials the 200m/660ft and 660ft/200m dials were being produced at same time for a few years. The final years of the 5513 production run housed a gloss dial with gold makers.

The calibers used for the 5513 were the 1530 and 1520. The slow beat (non submitted for chronometer testing) 1530 caliber ironically was shared with in the early 1960's with the 5512 Submariner, then around 1964-65 the a non hacking 1520 caliber transitioned onto the scene. From my research the non hacking 1520 caliber was made only a few short years before being replaced by the hacking 1520 caliber around 1967-8 or so. The hacking 1520 caliber would remain the caliber for the 5513 till the end of production well into the 1980's.

An early 200m/660ft dail matte version of the 5513




I do own a 660ft/200m dial in a military format


a view of the case back and 1520 caliber.


Here we have a Swiss gloss gilt dialed 5513 pointed guard from 1963 equipped with a 1530 caliber. More on the early 5513 in a few weeks.