My Spotlight: Tudor Submariner 9411-0

With this edition of My Spotlight, feature articles penned in conjunction with followers of Watch Affinity, we have uncovered one of those great stories of discovering extraordinary timepieces in unusual places. For this article we caught up with reader Jake to learn how he came to own a remarkable Tudor Submariner 9411-0. You can follow Jake on Instagram @AManInTime

 

My Spotlight: Tudor Submariner 9411-0

Before we take a look at Jake’s watch, we thought it would be important to first discuss a little bit of history of the Tudor Submariner. Tudor was founded as the sister brand of Rolex by Hans Wilsdorf in 1926, and it remains under the ownership of the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation today. Originally, Tudor used the same cases, bracelets and crowns as Rolex, and instead incorporated readily available movements to keep the prices down and the brand more accessible.

The first purpose-built diving watch released by Tudor was the Oyster Prince Submariner, reference 7922, appearing in 1954 a year after the Rolex Submariner despite them both being developed at the same time. The Rolex was released first as, after all, it was the forerunner of sister brand, Tudor.

At first, the movements inside the Tudor Submariner were third party movements provided by Fleurier (the first Tudor Submariner contained the Fleurier calibre 390). They continued to incorporate Fleurier movements until 1969, when they started to use ETA.

Various iterations of the Tudor Submariner were available through until the third and final 79000 series (references 79090 and 79190), which were introduced in the 1980s and remained available until the late 1990s.

Today, the Tudor Submariner is no longer available, with Tudor instead offering alternatives such as the Pelagos diving watch and the deservedly popular Black Bay. As such, anybody interested in obtaining a Tudor Submariner will have to search the pre-owned market and finding the right piece can take a lot of time, patience, and of course, luck. And this is exactly how Watch Affinity reader Jake came to acquire his own stunning vintage Tudor Submariner.

First off, why don’t you tell us a little about the watch?

“This is a vintage Tudor Submariner 9411-0, with the snowflake hands and the date from 1976. A lot of the parts on this watch were taken from the Rolex Submariner 1680 including the case, bracelet, crown, acrylic and caseback. Where it differs from the Rolex though is that it has an ETA movement inside – calibre 2784.

“What I love most about this watch is that it’s not NOS [new old stock]. I know a lot of people like this, but for me that isn’t the point of a diver from the 1970s. I really like the patina, the wear and tear, which all shows this was used as a tool watch, and I think that’s pretty cool.”

The bezel on Jake’s watch is a beautiful example of what is often referred to as a ‘ghost bezel’, where it has faded owing to an issue that existed prior to Rolex introducing their proprietary ceramic ‘Cerachrom’ bezels. The fade is caused by a number of factors including exposure to the sunlight, and how the bezel had rubbed against cuff material over time. It makes for a unique and special aesthetic and so a ‘ghost bezel’ is highly desirable amongst collectors and it is easy to see why!

It also has the most incredible patina on the dial. It has blistered evenly across the whole surface and the lumed snowflake hands and indices have gone a beautiful creamy colour as the tritium has aged. This piece is completely original, with no replacement parts, and as such the overall effect is wonderful to see.

So, what was it about a vintage Tudor Submariner that got you interested?

“For me, I just thought it was a bit different to the Rolex. I had always wanted one, and the dream piece was a Marine Nationale. This was reignited one day when I was watching some older episodes of Talking Watches on Hodinkee and I saw the comedian Spike Feresten had one. After seeing this I started researching them for a few months and at first I was looking for a no date version, but when this came up and I found it online I decided to go for it.”

Where did you end up finding this piece in the end?

“I actually ended up finding this one through an advert on Gumtree! Of all the places I was looking, I never expected to find it on Gumtree at all, but as soon as I saw the advert, I knew I had to have it. It turned out that the seller was the son of the original owner, and I think at first he was a bit confused as to why I was so keen on his dad’s old watch that he had found in the back of a drawer.

“We had messaged each other and agreed a price, so I went to meet him to pick the watch up. But in between me messaging him and arriving at his house, he had received messages from other people as he was also trying to sell it on eBay and the bids had gotten higher than the price we had agreed on beforehand. Luckily for me he stuck with our agreement and so I picked it up for a decent price.”

Were you able to learn anything about the story of this particular watch when you collected it?

“Yes, when I spoke with him about it, it turned out that this watch had been given to his dad during the 1970s when he had started working as a commercial diver. He told me that one time, his dad had had a few beers and decided to throw the watch out of a window into the snow that had fallen for some weird reason, and it took the family a few days to find it once the snow had all melted!

“It has definitely seen better days, but it is rare to find a tool watch which has been used for its intended purpose, let alone a vintage tool watch in its original condition. I love the idea of this watch having been used regularly on diving trips in the 1970s and that I get to enjoy this on my wrist almost half a century later.”

So there you have it – proof that it is still possible to find some absolute gems if you are ready, willing and able to put in the time to look. And, of course, you are blessed with a little bit of luck as well! A huge thank you to Jake for taking the time to share the story of this wonderful Submariner.

Don’t forget to follow Jake on Instagram @AManInTime.

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