Watches are labeled “cult” when they have a certain history or status amongst collectors. Last week, MotoringExposure covered the Omega Speedmaster a.k.a Moonwatch as being a cult watch. This week, we decided to grab another cult watch and this is perhaps the most recognized cult watch of all: The Rolex Submariner.

Photo courtesy of SubGMT.com

Click here for my weekly Wednesday Watch article at MotoringExposure.

I haven’t seen this one before, a DLC Rolex GMT-Master. This neo-vintage Rolex GMT-Master with tritium dial has been treated with the famous Diamond Like Carbon coating by Time and Gems.

The coating on this timepiece is a mixture of polished and brushed parts, which is a bit different from the regular ref.16700 and ref.16710 models. The center links have been polished, as well as the lugs of the watch case. The anthracite colour on the brushed parts is a bit darker than the coating colour on the polished parts, giving it a bit of room to play with the light.

The cool thing about the GMT-Master in DLC edition is that the red GMT-hand stands out. I have seen the newer GMT-Master version (ref.116710LN) in a DLC edition somewhere else, but the green hand didn’t do as much magic as this red hand does in my humble opinion.

Time and Gems did a nice job on creating a militarized version of the well respected GMT watch by Rolex. What you can’t see on the pictures is the case back, which has been kept in stainless steel. The price tag of 6500 USD (or approx. 4800 Euro) is quite a bit away from the original price of a similar GMT-Master in stainless steel, but the DLC process is still a costly operation.

They have more DLC’ed Rolex models for sale on-line, like a Milgauss GV ref.116400 and a Sea-Dweller ref.16600 and more. I am thinking out loud how a Rolex Date-Just 116200 or a Rolex Yacht-Master 16622 would look like with a DLC coating.

Thanks to Jeff from Time and Gems for the use of their pictures.

Last weekend, I was able to try a Rolex Milgauss with a Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) finish. Watch-Site had both this Rolex Milgauss and the Deepsea Sea-Dweller DLC’ed, where the Milgauss is ready for sale and the Deepsea needed to be assembled again. I took some pictures of the Deepsea to show the difference in color with the DLC Milgauss and to show how thick the crystal is, since the bezel was not re-attached yet.

When the the new Milgauss ref. 116400(GV) just came out in 2007, I was very impressed with it (as you can read here) but noticed that the watch didn’t get picked-up as I thought it would be (as I wrote here). Along the way, this watch really grew on me and I already decided that this new Milgauss could be a perfect alternative for the Rolex Explorer 114270, as 36mm is a bit too small for my wrists. The Rolex Explorer always attracted me for being the cleanest sports Rolex around, but just not for me due to its size.

Now, when I noticed that Watch-Site had this Rolex Milgauss DLC up for sale, I immediately asked them if I could try it for a few hours and make some pictures of it (since they are located nearby). The color of the Milgauss DLC isn’t black as most DLC watches, it has more of an anthracite color where the center links are still having that polished look and the rest of the bracelet kept the brushed finish.

Pictures can be a bit misleading when it comes to the DLC color of this Milgauss. To show you that it actually is quite dark in comparison to stainless steel, I took a picture of my wife’s Rolex Explorer 114270 next to the Rolex Milgauss 116400. Please don’t mind the dust specks on these watches, as I didn’t notice them till only later when I loaded the pictures into my computer. The picture also shows the differences in size between the Explorer and the Milgauss, but also demonstrate the clean and readable dial of both.

Although I could see myself adding a Rolex Milgauss to my modest collection of timepieces, this DLC was yet another confirmation that I am not very into DLC or black watches. I tried a (black) Sinn 142St.S a few years back and it didn’t last very long, I guess the same would go for this Milgauss. Personally, I do love the look of DLC watches, but they’re just not for me as I feel they are not as all-round usable as ‘plain’ stainless steel watches.

In the picture above, you can clearly see the difference between the center links and the outer links of the bracelet. The Milgauss is quite thick, probably due to its inner case which makes it anti-magnetic / protected against magnetic fields. It wears very differently from my GMT-Master II 16710 and Sea-Dweller 16600. I love the sapphire crystal sticking out, like the Sea-Dweller’s crystal. The matt dial is very clean and in combination with DLC, very militarish. The orange flashing bolt hand refers to the vintage Milgauss models, to people who do not know this, it might look a bit awkward

Below you’ll see two pictures of the Deepsea Sea-Dweller 116660, in parts…  just came back from the workshop where they applied the DLC technology to this Dipsy. Since the bezel was removed for the operation, it gives a good view on how thick the sapphire crystal of the Deepsea really is. THICK!

The DLC coating on this Deepsea is matt black and very different from the glossy looking Milgauss. The Deepsea is a heavy duty watch and the matt black DLC looks appropriate on it, being a tool watch pur sang.

Where I concluded earlier that the Milgauss or DLC (in general) is not for me, I did become even more enthusiastic about the Milgauss than I was before. Let’s see what 2010 has to offer for my watch collection!

Price of the Milgauss DLC (BNIB) is 5750 Euro. Thanks to Watch-Site for letting me handle these DLC timepieces.

In April 2009, just after I returned from BaselWorld 2009, I temporarily switched my Rolex Yacht-Master 16622 with a friend’s Submariner 16613.

Although I really had to get used to all that gold on this Submariner, the watch was definitely an eye-catcher and felt right in terms of weight, size and looks. The blue dial was amazing, espcially during daylight.

Since BaselWorld 2009, Rolex introduced the new stainless steel/gold Submariner 116613. Using their new style case, like the GMT-Master IIc 116710LN and the earlier introduced white gold Submariner 116619, it is evident that this is Rolex’s way forward. It seems that Rolex listened to a lot of customers, and is firing their innovations to us in up-tempo. Rolex brings us new and improved movements (parachrom, YMII movement), a new type of bracelet with solid gold center links and a new folding clasp and ofcourse the new case design.

John Holbrook of The Rolex Reference Page and Watch Talk Forums Inc wrote an excellent comparative review on the new Two Tone Submariner 116613 and the former 16613 model. He had the opportunity to review the new Two Tone Submariner and compare it to his own Z-series model Submariner 16613.

Below you see the pictures that he took of both models:

Although the differences appear to be quite obvious, I suggest you read John’s article to learn more about the changes that Rolex made to its most iconic model of the last few decades.

Click here to read “COMPARATIVE REVIEW: The Rolex Submariner 16613 vs. the Rolex Submariner 116613″

As I planned to attend BaselWorld 2010, I assume that one of the models that Rolex will be introducing will be the new Submariner in stainless steel, probably with the same case design and bracelet as the full gold and gold/steel models. I would consider this a good successor to the 16600 Sea-Dweller and 16610 Submariner, as the new Deep-Sea Sea-Dweller is a totally different design from its predecessor. However you never know if Rolex is actually going to introduce the Rolex Submariner 116610 this year, that they will come with something completely different or that they will skip a year with their innovations.

Both photos are used with permission from WATCH TALK FORUMS INC

During the last few days, we encountered some heavy snowfall here in The Netherlands. As you can see below, ‘my street’ became all white last sunday.

Therefore, Bernhard of the 100% Rolex blog posted some incredible nice photographs of Rolex sports watches with so called tropical dials. According to Bernhard, these 1960s dials have probably been painted with a mixture of colours to get a deep black dial. The mixture probably included some brown that comes to the surface after the other colours faded away through UV (or perhaps a bit of moisture, who knows).

In his most recent post, Bernhard shows a few Rolex models (among them is the Cosmograph pictured below) with a tropical dial. Although the vintage Cosmographs (and Daytonas) are a bit too small for my wrist (as they are 36mm), I really love them a lot.

Brown dials are hot and I must admit that I always liked the brown dialed Rolex chronograph models, including the later Rolex Cosmograph Daytona ref.16520 ‘compax marrone’ or ‘Patrizzi’ with its brown subdial rings.

The (handwound) chronograph movements that Rolex used in those days were far before they started using their own movements, or even the Zenith movements ofcourse. In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, Rolex used the Valjoux 72 movement as a base caliber for their own Rolex caliber 727 movements. Below you see a close up of the Rolex Cosmograph movement, used for an interesting article on the WatchProSite. The photograph has been taken by A.Shear.

This Valjoux 72 handwound chronograph caliber with a column wheel mechanism was used by numerous other brands, such as Heuer, Girard-Perregaux, Wakman, Wittnauer etc. However, and maybe I am falsely informed, but my guess is that most vintage Rolex collectors (same goes for Panerai for example) are not very interested in the mechanics inside their wrist watches, but it’s more about aesthetics. But please, if you are on the look out for a beautiful vintage Rolex, make sure the movement inside is in good running condition. Do not focus on optical problems only.

Please visit Bernhard’s 100% Rolex blog for more interesting information on these vintage beauties.