The Sub is a classic. It's clean lines and masculine design, without being ... um, compensatory, place it in the classic "I'm rich, but adventurous and sporty" category we all wish we could be.
It basically presses all the right buttons. It's got the rolex brand, and that counts. It's got no gold or flash. It could be just a regular metal watch, but it just isn't. It signifies sport, but nothing involving horseshit or mud, and it works. Ten-year old boys want one. Forty-year old men want one because it reminds them of what they thought men should be like when they were ten. It's the perfect man's watch.
It's the watch we all wish people would assume we wore.
"Oh, yeah, Pugwash. I saw him with one of those swimsuit models, and he was off to go shark harpooning or something. I bet he wears a Rolex Sub, like the real James Bond did back in the day."