Submariner Date "Bluesy"

About This Watch

Collectors call this colourway "Bluesy," a nickname that's stuck to the two-tone Submariner's blue dial and matching blue bezel since the look first appeared on the earlier ref. 16803 in the 1980s and carried through the 16613 and its modern successors. It's prized specifically because the blue shifts with the light, reading near-black indoors and a bright, saturated blue in direct sun, on a watch that otherwise keeps the Submariner's standard 300m dive-watch case and function set.

This example pairs the blue sunburst dial with its matching blue bezel insert, both set in the steel-and-18k-gold two-tone case and Oyster bracelet, with gold centre links and a gold crown and bezel edge. The dial itself is a genuine marker of its age: the small print above 6 o'clock reads "SWISS" alone, with no "MADE" after it, the mark Rolex used for roughly a year, 1998 into 1999, between retiring tritium lume and adopting Super-LumiNova, and this watch's own A-series serial falls squarely inside that narrow production window. It appears to be unpolished, and comes in a vintage green Rolex presentation box with both red and green tags, and an extra bracelet link (10 total), alongside a local authentication certificate.

40mm steel and 18k yellow gold case powered by the Rolex Calibre 3135, a Superlative Chronometer-certified automatic movement with a quickset date, approximately 48 hours of power reserve, a sapphire crystal, and 300m water resistance.