The Rolex Submariner You Didn't Know Existed

Every so often, a watch comes across my feed that truly makes me do a double take. This was one of them. It's a Rolex Submariner ref. 1680. You see the case, the crown guards, and the Cyclops over the date. But when you really look, you’ll see the bezel is ringed with raised numbers instead of a dive scale, it has a President bracelet with bark-textured center links, and the case and bracelet are solid 18k white gold, a metal Rolex never officially made the reference 1680 in.

Three of these are known to exist. Two blue dials, one black, and not one has a serial number on the case. Christie's has sold two of the three and dates one to the early 1970s and another to circa 1977, calling them prototypes. You can be pretty deep into Rolex and have no idea they exist, which is why I wanted to highlight them today.

A Submariner That Doesn't Look Like One

Rolex Submariner ref. 1680 white gold prototype with black dial, circa 1977. Image Source: Christie's

The bezel is the giveaway that this isn't a dive watch. Instead of a high-contrast 60-minute timing scale, it's engine-turned, with applied raised numbers at the five-minute marks and a big triangle at 12. Engine-turning (or guilloché) is just decorative machining that cuts fine repeating lines into metal, and here it fills the gaps between the numbers with tight fluting. It’s knurled at only two points so you can grip it with two fingers. The look is closer to a vintage Datejust Turn-O-Graph than anything on the dive side of the catalog. The bezel is bidirectional, which is true of all ref. 1680s.

Rolex Submariner ref. 1680 white gold prototype with blue dial, circa early 1970s. Image Source: Iconeek

The dial is a “nipple dial,” named for its conical applied indices, which are gold and filled with tritium lume. They’re paired with gold hands and the four lines of chronometer text you'd expect from a Sub of this era. The depth reads 660ft = 200m, feet first, the order Rolex used from about 1971 on and a nudge toward the early-'70s dating. The bracelet is a white gold President, the one Rolex usually saves for the Day-Date, with bark-textured center links.

What a Normal 1680 Is

Rolex Submariner ref. 1680 "Red Sub." Image Source: Bob's Watches

To get why this is so strange, it helps to know the standard one. The 1680 was the first Submariner with a date, made from 1967 to 1979, and the first with the Cyclops lens. Early ones had the model line printed in red, the famous “Red Submariner,” before Rolex moved to white text in the early '70s. It came in steel and yellow gold, running the caliber 1575.

The 1575 is a caliber 1570 with a date module added, and it has a fun quirk: Rolex stamped the movement "1570" on the bridge whether or not it had a date, since they made one part and labeled it with the base number. So a real dated 1680 reads 1570 inside, and a movement stamped "1575" is actually the red flag. Worth knowing this was also the last Submariner with a bidirectional bezel before Rolex went unidirectional with the 16800. Hold that thought.

Prototype, or Special Order?

Image Source: Christie's

Christie's calls these prototypes, which would make sense given the missing serial numbers. A watch built outside the normal numbered run appears, by that logic, as experimental. Covering the 2017 sale, RolexMagazine cited a credible source arguing these were special orders instead, built for clients paying a big premium for something unique in the early '70s, which would explain the absent serials just as well.

Either way, Rolex has never said a word. No acknowledgment that a white gold 1680 exists, no count, no explanation. Everything written about them, this piece included, is reverse-engineered from the watches and the auction houses that have handled them.

The Provenance Nobody Can Quite Pin Down

Image Source: Christie's

When Christie's sold a blue-dial example in 2017, the catalog said it came from a descendant of the original owner's family and had been worn daily by the owner's nephew, with both men reportedly working for Rolex. Great story, if true. The catch is that the same story later attached itself to the black-dial watch sold in 2026, in preview write-ups from outlets like Uncrate, even though Christie's own 2026 summary doesn't mention it. So believe what you want — I think the nephew story is probably true of the 2017 blue watch, where it's best sourced, but beyond that I’m unsure. Maybe one family held two of them. Maybe some old catalog copy got pasted forward.

What They've Sold For

Image Source: Iconeek

The record is short. In May 2017, Christie's sold a blue-dial example in Geneva for CHF 631,500, a little over $628,000, a record for any Submariner at the time. A blue one returned at Iconeek in December 2022 (movement D701771) and didn't sell. Then in May 2026, Christie's sold the black-dial watch (movement D612043) for CHF 635,000, about $783,000. That's three public appearances and two sales, and since the 2017 movement number was never published, I’m unsure if that watch and the 2022 no-sale were the same blue example or two different ones.

A Design That Came Back

Rolex Submariner ref. 116619LB "Smurf." Image Source: Wind Vintage

Ask most collectors when the first white gold Submariner appeared and they'll say 2008, the year of the 116619LB, the blue Sub everyone calls the Smurf. Nearly every reference guide repeats it. These prototypes beat that watch by about 35 years, in the same metal, with the same dial color, before many Smurf buyers were born.

This prototype's bidirectional bezel, raised bezel numerals, precious metal, and overall elevated take on the Submariner is essentially the Yacht-Master's whole identity. The Yacht-Master didn't arrive until the '90s. Remember, the 1680 was the last bidirectional-bezel Sub before the line went unidirectional, so this sits right on that hinge, with a bezel style that would later define a different Rolex. That's the appeal of these three Subs: almost impossibly rare, mysterious provenance, and a design that’s so unique it has to be Rolex. And of course, they won’t confirm or deny anything. Do you have a theory on where these came from? Or better yet, do you have one sitting in a drawer? Let us know in the comments.