Vintage Rolex Submariner 5512

[morlock]

I have never been a Rolex fan, of course I recognize the heritage and timeless design, Rolex stands for.

I found my way to keep away from a Rolex rep, you know even when you have a gen, people think is a rep. But the vintage Rolex Subs & Explorers have a special atraction, hard to explain but for sure you know the feeling.

So, finally I decided to order a Vintage Rolex Submariner 5512 with Swiss ETA 2836-2 movt from Trusty Time's Top Grade Rolex Models Section. Why this model ? Well it has some key feature that I love from old Rolex:

1.- Plexiglass crystal, nothing is more retro than Plexi

2.- No cyclop, I just hate it

3.- No date, eliminate any font problem

4.- Someway linked to Steve McQueen

As usual Andrew delivery time was short, and my new retro piece arrive very fast. When I opened the package I found a beautyful shinny vintage Rolex, but It was too shinny to be a vintage. So I decide to try to vintalize it a little, nothing to drastic, whatever I could accomplish in 2 or 3 hour. Perfect as a Saturday morning project.

I will not comment over the accuracy of the rep due I am far from been a Rolex conosiuer, so this will mostly pictures before and after I play with it.

The aging process covered 3 main areas:

CASE: Few ScothBrite strokes and 2 full cycle at the washing machine. The last one produce thousnads of hair thin scratches (see the caseback pic). I know this is not water proof traditional method, but the case withstand 2 full cycle without leting in a drop.

DIAL: I selected this model beacuse it doesn't have those bright yellow markers, instead it has light cream/tan markers. So I just applied some stain with coffee grind.

BEZEL: The traditional bleach treatment to reduce the bright and tone down the color.

Well enough words, I hope you enjoy the pics.

DIAL

SIDE VIEW

PEARL / BEZEL

CASEBACK

Sorry but I forgot to take a pic of the caseback before I did the washing machine treatment, but this caseback is well know mirror like polish SS.

VARIOUS ANGLES

Finally some pics so you could have an idea of the details of this nice piece.

MOVT

CROWN GUARD

BRACELET

CASEBACK INSIDE

[panerai153]

Morlock,

Looks really nice and vintage. Certainly a nice job and it really looks well used.It certainly took a leap of faith to put your watch in the washing machine for 2 cycles. Obviously the reps are getting more water resistant. Several years back, water resistant in a rep meant that you could Probably run through a light rain shower and not flood the watch.

I think what a lot of folks don't realize is that back in the 1960's and 70's these watches were everyday wearers. They were certainly not "safe queens".In 1969 I bought a 1680. What we call a "Great White". I bought it new for 500.00 USD. The dealer had a 1680 Red Sub as well, but I liked the white dial better. He told me that when the white dial version came out, he couldn't hardly give the Red Subs away!! Go figure. At any rate, This watch was my daily wearer for probably 10 years. at about 7-8 years, I sent it to Rolex to be refurbished, as it had gotten really dinged and banged up. the crystal had so many scratches, you could hardly tell time.Of course when it came back it looked brand new. It took me another couple of years to get it "vintigized" again. I was running my family's Cattle and farming operation, so I was in dust, mud, diesel, Cow Sh*T and everything else imaginable. When I dressed up for church or to attend a meeting, all I did was give the watch a good scrubbing with soap and water. That's what everyone did back then. I finally got caught up enough to buy a nice S/S Datejust to wear as my "Dress" watch, mainly because my wife complained that my old sub was too ratty to wear in public!

Wear it in good health.

Arthur

[gplracer]

Arthur that was a wonderful story! I enjoyed reading it.

[Raijor]

Good on you ... you did a great job with that one..though that method vintagizing seems a little risky, but it worked out alright and really did a great job with making random markings... which are just the kind that real long term every day wearing would produce.

[morlock]

Thanks pals for your kind comments.

Arthur, great story, thanks for sharing. I am with you, Rolex Subs born as a tool watch, and I think they still are it. Solid, reliable, accurate tool, unfortunately maybe a little over priced.

Regarding the washing machine, it was not an act of faith nor a risky move, before I used on my new Rolex, I did several tests with a couple of cheap reps. By the way those 2 reps ended with a lot of water inside the case after the first attempts, so I could assure my Subs could resist a long day at the pool or beach without swear.

[TeeJay]

It looks fantastic, fine work indeed

[Toadtorrent]

Looks great!!! Did you worry about scratching up your washing machine???

[morlock]

Looks great!!! Did you worry about scratching up your washing machine???

hahaha, good point, the washing machine's barrel is SS without any paint on it, so I didn't worry about scratching it.

Also I am divorce so I could whatever I want with that machine

Thanks.