1953 was a significant year because in many ways it marked the end of World War II, although officially that conflict had ended 8 years previously, the world had spent the intervening years gradually rebuilding their economies. Consider these events of 1953; in Russia, Stalin died and in the UK sugar rationing was abolished, just in time for the coronation of a new Queen, Elizabeth II. The first signs of a new world were there for all to see; Everest was first climbed, the secret of DNA was uncovered by Crick & Watts and in Japan, N.H.K. began to transmit its first television broadcasts. The new world was also visible in two new publications; in Chicago, Hugh Hefner published the first edition of Playboy and in London Ian Fleming’s first James Bond book “Casino Royale” hit the bookstores.

It was fitting that Everest was first climbed in that year because it made a perfect contrast to the fact that four months later Auguste and Jean Piccard (father and son) made a dive to the new world record depth of 3,150 meters. Their craft, named the Trieste, attained this phenomenal depth with the help of scientists and engineers from all over the world; however the greatest publicity, other than for the Piccards, was gained by Rolex whose new experimental watch had proved to be of no value whatsoever to the Piccards. The reason it was useless to them is that it was attached to the outside of the Trieste, where it stood up to the pressures of over 600 atmospheres without a problem.
As 1953 had seen the birth of the Rolex diving watch and of James Bond, the following year, 1954, saw them make their first appearance before a wider audience. On October 21st, Bond made his first screen appearance; only this time it was not on the big cinema screen but rather on the small black and white home television screen. CBS transmitted the 50 minute adaptation of “Casino Royale” as part of its “Climax” action drama series, with the Bond rôle played by Barry Nelson (it is OK to say “Who?”). This 50 minute program appeared 6 months after Rolex had launched a consumer version of the Trieste watch at the Basle Spring Fair; the new watch bore the name “Submariner” and was destined to be one of the company’s most famous products, still in production today more than 40 years after this Basle launch.

This first Submariner (model 6204) was very different from the one we know today, it was much slimmer, had no crown guards (sometimes known as “shoulders”) and had a bezel and hands very different from the current ones. The bezel had no minute markers, just “slash” markers at each five minute division and the hands had yet to acquire the “Benz” symbol, they were just simple parallel hands with heavy luminous inserts and the seconds hand itself was most unusual, whilst it had the luminous dot we are used to seeing, on this first model it was at the tip of the hand rather than the current position 7.5 mm from it. In many ways the watch looked like a slight variation on the “Turn-O-Graph” (model 6202) which had been launched at the same Basle fair. But in truth the watches were quite different for whilst the Turn-O-Graph was waterproof to an astounding 150 feet (50 m); the Submariner could go an even more amazing 4 times deeper, 600 feet (200m).

Whilst the new Submariner proved popular, Rolex were not content to leave it alone; the first changes came only 1 year after its introduction and they marked the first faltering steps on the way from that early watch to the one we know today. This first change involved 2 of the 3 hands, the hour hand now acquired, the famous “Benz” symbol and the indicator dot on the seconds hand moved in from the end to its present position. The second change came during the same year but perhaps six months later, the bezel now gained minute markers for the first 15 minutes. Along with this small addition came another much larger one, an extra model Submariner. This new model was a slightly cheaper version but was cosmetically identical. The major difference was that the new watch was rated to only 100 m. The two watches continued in production for only another year before the new movement (caliber 1030) was introduced and the watches equipped with this new caliber were given new model numbers; the 5504 became the 6538 and the 5508 becoming the 6200.

While all of this activity was going on in the Rolex camp; Ian Fleming had also been busy, sitting in front of his specially gold plated “Royal” typewriter he had finished four more books “Live and Let Die” in 1954, “Moonraker” in 1955, “Diamonds are Forever” in 1956 and “From Russia with Love” in 1957. If you think that collecting watches is an expensive hobby, consider that typewriter. Specially commissioned from the Royal Typewriter Company in New York in 1952 for $174.00, it was put up for auction in May 1955 with an estimate of £5,000-£8,000 ($8 to $12,000), where after fierce bidding it finally sold for £56,250.00 (around $90,000.00).
Despite the meager $1,000 he had been paid for the screen rights to “Casino Royale”, Fleming was eager to see his hero on the big screen and so in 1958 he began negotiations with film producers in an attempt to get “Moonraker” filmed. The negotiations failed and Fleming went back to his typewriter and produced “Dr. No”, published a year later, in 1959, it was the novel that was to have the most lasting impact of all of them.

Rolex had been producing something special too and that year introduced the new heavier case, featuring the new larger (8 mm) crown; this crown was to become famous as the “Triplock” but on these first few watches it did not bear the three dots which were to become the Triplock signature, in its place was the word “Brevette”, meaning patented. With the new crown and the new case, the Submariner was starting to look much more like the watch we know today; all that was missing was the crown guards. Despite this new heavier case and the larger crown the watch was still rated at only 660 feet (200m). But that was not the strangest thing about the new watch, for whilst the case was a brand new design it still carried the same model number 6538; this means that the Rolex parts catalogs from that date list the watches as 6538 for the first model and 6538A for the later one.

Most people know that Bond is sometimes known as “Commander” Bond; this is a rank in the British Royal Navy and marks the final link between Bond, Fleming and the Submariner. Fleming was a naval officer before entering the intelligence service during WW 11, as was his hero, James Bond and in 1959 the Submariner also joined the Royal Navy. Unlike Fleming and Bond the Submariner did not join naval intelligence rather it was recruited for an even more hazardous branch, the “frogmen” or diver’s department.

Before it could do so, it was subject to the most arduous tests ever known, including making dives with the crown pulled out to the hand setting position, wearing it whilst shooting on the rifle range, lowering it on a cable to 400 feet (125 m). One of the divers on these tests wrote to Rolex to say that “No other watch on test has even finished the first set of dives, let alone the whole sequence and remained intact and waterproof”. The Royal Navy were so impressed with the watch that they authorized a press release from Rolex which included the quote “This official Royal Navy divers’ watch was put into production only after 2 years of exhaustive Admiralty exposure and timing tests in England and the Mediterranean. It has proved itself waterproof even down to 400 feet below the surface of the water.”

This first military version of the Submariner was special in many ways, not only did it have the “Explorer” style dial, usually seen on watches sold in Britain but it was marked as a model A/6538. Whilst it did have the solid bars that all subsequent military Submariners have featured, it did not have the special “diamond” hands seen on the later military 5513 models. This adoption of the Submariner by the Royal Navy validated the performance of the watch to several other navies and so they also adopted it, they included the French Navy, the Australian and Canadian navies.

There was one more Submariner/Bond link and it came in the 1973 movie of the second Bond book “Live and Let Die”, in this film our hero was supposedly issued with a very special Submariner (model 5513) equipped with an incredibly powerful electro magnet which could “deflect the path of a bullet”. This watch was also equipped with a motor which caused the bezel to rotate at high speed, turning it into a very effective circular saw; in the movie it was used to save the heroine (Solitaire) and Bond from being lowered into a pool of man-eating sharks. The only disappointment we all felt was that this model is not really a “James Bond” Submariner. This artefact from a story that had originally sprung from Fleming's gold plated Royal was to end in the same place as the typewriter when Christie's of London sold the self same watch for over £21,000 (around $37,000).