Rolex Submariner 1680

The 1680’s basic proposition stays steady: a Submariner rated to 200 m when new, now with a date under a Cyclops, and in specialist accounts powered throughout by the cal. 1575. What changes, and what drives most of the reference’s variant taxonomy, is what Rolex and its suppliers printed on the dial and what later maintenance could swap.

Early steel examples are defined by the red “SUBMARINER” line, but two of the most-used dating cues do not move in lockstep. The red line persists as the depth rating transitions from meters-first (200m = 660ft) to feet-first (660ft = 200m), so a feet-first dial can still be an authentic Red Sub configuration. In the mid-1970s the model settles into all-white “SUBMARINER” text for the remainder of production, still on matte tritium dials.

Service adds a second, post-production timeline that Rolex never tied to reference production years in public. Replacement inserts often shift the bezel from early fat-font numerals to later thin-font styles, and replacement dials can be spotted by lume era and the 6 o’clock signature, notably tritium-era “SWISS – T < 25” versus later “SWISS” service signing.

Taken together, the 1680 shows how quickly the “standard Submariner Date” was still being defined in real time: a reference treated today as an archetype, yet split into eras by nothing more than the color of one word and the order of two depth units.

The 1680 makes the most sense when set between the watch it lived alongside and the watch that replaced it. Ref. 5513 shows the contemporary, time-only acrylic Submariner: nearly the same wrist presence, but without the date window and Cyclops that define the 1680’s role. Ref. 16800 is the direct successor that keeps the Submariner Date concept but moves it into the sapphire era with a quickset movement. Ref. 1680/8 shows how the same-generation idea was reinterpreted in yellow gold with “nipple” dials, without participating in the steel red-versus-white taxonomy.

A Submariner 1680 review, in practice, becomes a test of whether the watch still reads as one moment in time. Because routine servicing often replaced dials and inserts, an example can be mechanically sound and still present a surface assembled from different eras. The best purchases are the ones whose dial era, depth layout, lume signature, and bezel style agree with each other.

For steel watches, the two biggest mistakes are treating “Red Sub” as a single configuration and ignoring the service timeline. Red “SUBMARINER” dials exist with both meters-first and feet-first depth lines, and a later service dial can erase the red text entirely while remaining an authentic Rolex part.

Living with a 1680 is living with acrylic: the Cyclops crystal can pick up hairline marks and polish back to clarity, and the matte tritium dial tends to age in a way that turns time into texture. It is the Submariner Date for people who want the calendar function, but also want the reference to show its years honestly, in the typography, the patina, and the small, checkable details that survived on the surface.