First things first, forget about just walking into a dealer and grabbing one. Unless you’re best buds with the owner, or you’ve bought, like, a small car’s worth of other watches from them, you’re probably gonna be on a waiting list longer than my ex’s excuses. Seriously.
Now, the Submariner. Classic, right? But why? Honestly, a lot of it’s the history. See, back in ’53 (that’s 1953, for the numerically challenged), Rolex kinda *invented* the modern dive watch with it. 100 meters waterproof? Back then? That was, like, mind-blowing. Then they just kept upping the ante. 200, then 300… it’s a relentless pursuit of “yeah, but can we make it *better*?” Which is cool, I guess.
But here’s where my slightly cynical side kicks in. Do YOU actually need a watch that can go 300 meters down? Probably not. I mean, unless you’re secretly Jacques Cousteau’s long-lost nephew, you’re more likely to be swimming in a chlorinated pool or, at best, snorkeling in the Caribbean. So, that insane depth rating is, let’s be honest, mostly for bragging rights. No shame in that, though. We all like to flex a little.
And then there’s the looks. The Submariner’s design is… well, it’s the design. Everyone copies it. Literally. It’s like the blue jeans of watches. And that’s both a good and a bad thing, right? Good because it’s timeless. Bad because… well, everyone copies it. So, sometimes you feel like you’re just wearing a really, *really* expensive version of something you could get for, like, a hundred bucks.
But… BUT… there’s just something about the Rolex name, the feel of it on your wrist, the way the light catches that ceramic bezel (if you’re going for the newer ones). It’s a *thing*. A status symbol? Sure. A brilliantly engineered piece of kit? Absolutely. A wildly overpriced tool watch? Maybe. All of the above, really.
