Category: Rolex

Most people who are interested in Rolex collections have a good understanding of their legendary, multi-time zone pilot’s watch, the GMT-Master. Even though the various GMT-Master and GMT-Master II references with their soda-themed nicknames have become mainstays within the luxury collecting world, there is an extra iteration that gains far less focus: the Rolex Blueberry GMT.  
The “Blueberry” GMT-Master is necessarily just a regular reference 1675 from the 1970s that was originally fitted with an all-blue bezel insert. Different from the other colors of bezel inserts that have been available for the GMT-Master line of watches, the all-blue insert of the “Blueberry” GMT is not something that Rolex replica ever officially provided as an option at any of their regular authorized dealers.
On the contrary, the blue, GMT bezel insert was made in small numbers during the 1970s, and reserved exclusively for particular orders by select retailers and military groups – examples can be found with the UAE Air Force emblem on the dial. Exact production numbers are unknown; however since the all-blue, GMT bezel insert was never officially provided to the general public, even service replacement inserts would have existed in significantly smaller numbers than the rest of the available colors.
A very small number of the “Blueberry” GMT-Master replica watches in existence were originally fitted with their all-blue bezel inserts. Lots of reproduction “Blueberry” GMT inserts are available today; however, a huge number of the genuine all-blue inserts are not actually original to their respective watches, but rather added on later during a subsequent service or repair.
The era of fake Rolex dials pre-dates the whole window of time in which these all-blue bezel inserts were in production. As a result, all “Blueberry” GMT-Master watches will be fitted with matte dials with white text, instead of the earlier glossy gilt dials, or later era gloss dials with white gold surround for the hour markers. What’s more, the “Blueberry” GMT-Master can be found with either an all-red GMT-hand or the classic GMT-hand with the red center section; however, it should be noted that the all-red GMT-hand variant is generally considered to be less common.
Since the all-blue bezel insert is the only defining feature of the “Blueberry” GMT-Master, the price and desirability of such inserts have gone up crazily in recent years, as an increasing number of buyers have tried to secure one for their own collections.

The Rolex Oyster Chronograph replica watch is often taken as the grandfather of the Rolex Daytona. Manufactured from 1955 to 1961, it provides many of the same features as the Daytona but lacks much of its technological innovation. For instance, reference 6234 utilizes Rolex Caliber 72 with 17 jewels and column wheel construction. Therefore, reference 6234 lacks an automatic movement, as the Daytona possesses. This well-known replica must be manually wound rather than automatically winding with the flick of the wrist.
Rolex made around 500 reference 6234’s per year during its 6-year production run, averaging at a full production number of about 2300 stainless steel models and less than 150 14k and 18k gold models. The dial was also varying in design, with some watches featuring a white dial while others featured a black dial.
The three sub-dials featured on the main dial varied between some pieces as well. The three sub-dials offer a constant seconds counter at 9 o’clock, a 30 minute counter at 3 o’clock, and a 12 hour counter at 6 o’clock. These sub-dials allow the wearer to simultaneously measure speed and distance. Reference 6234 also features a tachometer scale on the outer ring and a telemeter scale for distances on the inner ring. The timepiece is topped with a plastic crystal, rather than the later synthetic sapphire crystal. Each watch is also typically finished off with an oyster riveted bracelet. Depending on the watch finish or later alteration the oyster bracelet could be made of stainless steel, 14k gold, 18k gold, or leather.
The Oyster crown is set at the 3 o’clock mark and is flanked by twin round pushers, giving the watch a sporty appearance. Though not a Daytona feature, a surprising technically innovative feature of reference 6234 is its magnetic resistance, which aids in maintaining the timepiece’s precision and accuracy. Some similarities between the later Daytona and reference 6234 include the utilization of the replica Rolex’s patented oyster case, which can withstand water pressure and remain waterproof up to 200 meters. The oyster case maintains its water-resistance through the use of three components; bezel, case body, and a screw-down case back.
The Rolex replica  Chronograph 6234 is one of the most prized vintages Rolex watches as the forerunner of the Rolex Daytona. But it does not give the convenience of automatic winding, and it does offer many wonderful features Rolex eventually incorporated into their later models. The Rolex Chronograph 6234 is a must-have piece for any Rolex collection, not only as a wonderful example of Rolex history, but as vintage, yet totally wearable watch.

The Rolex Oyster Perpetual 39 watches were debuted, which comes with two new dial colors for Rolex’s entry-level men’s watch. White and black dials were added to the assortment of four other Rolex Oyster Perpetual 39 watch dials that were debuted when the replica Rolex Oyster Perpetual was newly established in 2015. Rolex chose to introduce this model with purple, olive, blue, and gray dial colors to begin with several years ago. The Oyster Perpetual 39 is available for more conservative and arguably more versatile black or white dial options. However, this is good news for those who are in the market for a brand new and entry-level Rolex.
At 39mm wide the Rolex Oyster Perpetual 39 is the largest of the Oyster Perpetual models that also available in smaller sizes. As a casual or dress watch, the 39mm diameter works, but if you want to go up to 40mm wide, you can spend several hundred dollars more for a fake Rolex Air-King.
Starting now in 2018 Rolex is branding the 904L steel alloy they use as “Oystersteel.” When you see that name it just means 904L, but Rolex’s particular blend of it. Rolex wants to make sure that its much cheaper steel replica watches which can cost thousands more than the Oyster Perpetual 39 have more complex case finishing – and that is true.
Both the replica Rolex Oyster Perpetual 39 and Explorer contain the in-house made automatic Rolex Calibre 3132 time-only (no date) movement. The Air-King still uses the older Calibre 3131, which has been upgraded with a bit more performance features in the caliber 3132. Operating at 4Hz the movement has about two days of power reserve.
As an Oyster collection watch, the case of this model is water-resistant to 100m, has a screw-down crown, and is covered with a sapphire crystal. With the addition of the black or white dial option, the Oyster Perpetual 39 suddenly has gained a lot more appeal for Rolex brand traditionalists who don’t look to the brand for trendy colors. I think it is wonderful that the Rolex replica makes the Oyster Perpetual 39 available as a more fashionable timepiece, but for me, the white or black dials are going to be appealing to most male buyers, more so than the existing dial colors.
As a matter of fact, I don’ like falling back on conservatism to make product recommendations as it would be interesting to see more people out there with purple and green watch dials. With that said, I know white or black watch dial choices tend to be a bit more widely appealing and for that reason, I think it was a good idea for the fake Rolex to introduce the Rolex Oyster Perpetual 39 in the black and white dial variants.

The release of the popular replica Rolex Sea-Dweller last year – with its single line of red text – brought a large number of focuses back towards Rolex’s line of deep-sea, saturation diving watches. Even though the helium gas escape valve has become the defining feature of the Sea-Dweller line, the very first fake Rolex model to be full of it was actually a Submariner that was used as prototypes while Rolex worked with the French diving company, COMEX, to upgrade the design of their gas release valve. 
All early examples of this fake Sea-Dweller were originally equipped dials with red text on them; however, as for the amazing vintage Sea-Dweller watches, a dial with one line of red text is not the same as a dial with two lines of red letters.
The very first watches to bear the “Sea-Dweller” name were the prototypes that were used for field-tests during the early Tektite projects, in which divers would spend multiple days living in a pressurized chamber below the surface of the ocean. These fake watches have both the “Submariner” and “Sea-Dweller” names printed on their dials; however, on these early prototypes, it is only the Sea-Dweller name that appears in red letters. What’s more, next to the Submariner name, a depth rating of “500 M – 1650 FT” is also printed in white text.
It’s very funny to see that many of these Single Red Sea-Dweller watches did not have helium gas escape valves, since the issue with trapped helium molecules only occurs at greater depths when divers are living in helium-saturated environments for extended periods of time. Different from the modern Sea-Dweller 126600 which is mass-manufactured, only about a dozen of these watches were ever made, and all were given to divers that had been handpicked to receive them for either testing purposes or as awards. Due to how few were ever manufactured, Single Red Rolex Sea-Dweller replica watches are extremely rare and command unbelievable premiums whenever they manage to surface at auction.
When the fake Sea-Dweller was first launched to the public, the fake watch was originally fitted with a dial that still had red lettering; however, it was the addition of a second line of red text that separated it from the small batch of prototypes that had come before it. These “Double Red” Sea-Dweller watches have the names, “Sea-Dweller” and “Submariner 2000” printed on their dials in red text, below which, a depth rating of “2000 ft = 610 m” appears in white.
The Double Red Sea-Dweller was made for roughly the first 10 years of the fake watch’s existence; however, some of these replica watches have their original “Double Red” dials replaced with later-era equivalents that feature all-white text and do not have the “Submariner 2000” name printed on them at all. Even though they are becoming quite hard to find in all-original condition, Double Red Sea-Dwellers are actually more common than the prototype Single Red Sea-Dweller watches that preceded them.

Some of the vintage watches we rarely talk about from Rolex’s long and illustrious history are their early self-winding fake watches, affectionately nicknamed “Bubble Backs” by members of the collecting world. Although they were not particularly designed for some demanding sport or an inhospitable environment, the Rolex Bubble Back represents the basic, self-winding template that all modern Rolex watches would come to follow. 
Rolex’s Bubble Back replica watches get their nickname from their extremely rounded, protruding case-backs. Although greatly interesting from a design standpoint, the Bubble Back design was actually born out of necessity as an efficient means to house Rolex’s thicker, self-winding movements.
It was during the 1930s that the Rolex first began fitting their watches with automatic movements, rather than the manually wound calibers that had been traditionally used in their watches. The addition of the oscillation weight significantly increased the overall thickness of the movement and required extra clearance for the rotor to move freely inside the case. Rather than making the entire case of the watch larger, the fake Rolex decided to allow the case-back to protrude in a curved, bubble-shaped fashion.
By today’s standards, the replica Rolex Bubble Back watches are rather antiquated in design. Case diameters are relatively small and typically hover around 30 mm to 32 mm for the classic men’s models. Besides, because of their domed acrylic crystals and convex, protruding case-backs, Bubble Back watches are disproportionally thick in an almost egg-like fashion.
Although their large, dome-shaped case-backs have earned these watches several different nicknames all over the years, the “Bubble Back” name is probably the most well known and commonly used today. The small case diameter and relatively large overall thickness combine to make a somewhat awkward and strangely proportioned, egg-shaped watch; however, Bubble Backs represents an early and important time in Rolex’s history, when the company was first starting to refine their self-winding watch movements.
Nowadays, all Rolex fake watches are fitted with automatic-winding calibers; however, they can trace their root DNA back to the original Bubble Back watches that Rolex first introduced during the early 1930s. Almost every watch that the Rolex replica now makes has the word “Perpetual” printed on the surface of its dial, and it was these early Bubble Back replica watches that were the first to receive the Rolex’s inaugural, self-winding movements.

Generally speaking, we would say when a watch sells for an eyebrow-raising sum of money, the assertion is made – the words vary but the basic substance is the same – that it’s “ruining the hobby.” The latest example was the “barn find” Speedmaster we covered earlier this month, but there are also some other examples. It seems to mostly have passed unnoticed that in the same Phillips auction in which the PNPND set its record, I’m not sure that this isn’t at least as insane as paying $17 million for the PNPND, assuming you think this sort of thing is crazy in the first place.
So now, is this bad for watch collecting? Prices for both new and vintage fake watches of top quality, and from blue-chip names like the replica Rolex and Patek Philippe, seem on an endless upward trend. Even ten or fifteen years ago, good vintage watches weren’t exactly cheap, but the huge sums of money flowing into vintage watch collecting have, it’s true, changed the game. When I first got interested in watches, the watch magazines, such as they were, were on newsstands along with the model railroading, doll collecting, and stamp collecting magazines. Things have obviously changed greatly after that. 
The general unbelievable increase in the auction prices – and not just records, but auction prices in general – for the most collectible models are indeed bad if you’re not a wealthy individual, and what were affordable collectibles ten years ago, have become unachievable for many of us. (Of course, if you’re selling those models and got them ten to twenty years ago, it’s the best thing that ever happened to fake Rolex collecting.) I don’t know that it’s necessarily good or bad in any absolute sense, but it has fundamentally changed the nature of watch collecting, and what was once a somewhat quirky, slightly inexplicable, occasionally expensive but basically low-visibility hobby has become, to some extent, a high-stakes media circus.
The other question – is it worth it? There are two answers anyway. The first of course is “no.” The price paid for the PNPND is indefensible by any sensible measure; it is out of any plausible – never mind logical – relationship to either the design intelligence behind, or quality of craft of, or ingenuity contained within, the PNPND or any other Daytona. The second answer, however, is “yes” and that is because, by definition, the worth of something is what someone would like to purchase it – or in this case, and more relevantly, for not just the object, but what it stands for. We’ve already talked about what the PNPND and Daytonas in general, represent beyond the basic physical and design features, of the replica watches – the PNPND especially is valuable largely not for what it is, but for what it symbolizes.