Rolex Submariner Comparison: 126610LV VS 116610LV (Green Subs)

Well, we have all had a pretty rough 2020. If you are a watch guy through and through, your year was kinda going super crummy up until September 1, 2020 when Rolex decided to get everyone’s spirits up by dropping a ton of new watches and updating some of the classic Rolex collections. 

For us here at Everest, one model in particular has always been top of mind, the Rolex Submariner. It is the quintessential dive watch and has become the iconic Rolex that we all desire to have. Over the last few years, one reference particularly has become the one that has been incredibly desirable: the 116610LV - the HULK! 

This green beast for years was neglected and even at times was sold at a discount at Rolex Authorized Dealers that had trouble selling them. The unique green bezel and sunburst green dial took some time to be loved by the Rolex community. However, in the last twenty four months, this Submariner variant has become maybe the hottest watch Rolex offered. The second hand market had them selling at a premium of 50% over MSRP and just recently they have skyrocketed to more than double MSRP. 

Why do you ask? Probably because its imminent death was predicted years ago. Originally the LV (Lunette Verte, which means green bezel in French) was supposed to be a reduced production model to commemorate the Rolex Submariner’s 50th anniversary. Rolex decided that they would just keep producing it for the next seventeen years (because there is the right way, the wrong way and the Rolex way, right?!?!)

Now that the old king is gone, let us find out what is different about the new king, the 126610LV. First, the dial has gone from a sunburst green, back to a lacquer black. I say back to black due to the 16610LV (the Kermit) being this color combination. This was honestly a pretty bold move, since the sunburst green dial took some serious time to be warmed up to by the general public. I have always wanted a hulk but for some reason never pulled the proverbial trigger.

The original all black Rolex Submariner screamed “buy me” in all its variants though and now that it has a black dial and green bezel, I am all over it. Other additions that we can see is that the dial is ever so slightly larger than its predecessor, and of course, Rolex has begun labeling the six o’clock portion of the dial with “Swiss ♛ Made.” This change in text has been on all the new Rolex models with the 3235 movements. We guessed these changes accurately in our prediction article here. 

Moving outward from the dial, we have the green ceramic. It has been confirmed that the green on the ceramic is actually the same color as the hulk. The size of the insert has most likely changed due to the minor increase in the overall watch size. 

People made a big deal about the new sub being “41mm,” but we have come to find out that the previous generation’s case size was 40.2 mm, and the new generation is 40.9 mm (this data is from an Authorized Rolex Dealer). We did come to find out the dimensions, other than the width of the watch, are identical. Case thickness, lug to lug, etc. are the same. So, the new sub should wear extremely similar once on the wrist. I would say the 21mm wide lug width on the bracelet will make it much harder to find any straps that fit the watch...except of course we’ll have them here :-) 

From the side of any other real differences with the exterior of the watch, we can point out a few nuisances such as lug shape and bracelet width. We will be digging further into the differences once we are able to do a true comparison face to face with each model. We hope to have a fully updated Rolex Submariner comparison coming soon. Stay tuned to get more hands-on details of the models in the coming weeks.