The Ascent of Dive Watches

How tools created for military and commercial divers became luxury timepieces.

- ALLEN FARMELO

ROLEX SUBMARINER DATE, 40MM, REF. 116610LN, $8,950, IN STEEL WITH CERAMIC BEZEL.

AFTER WORLD WAR II, men’s daily fashion began to evolve toward the casual look we enjoy today. Denim jeans, leather jackets, and rugged boots all derive from either military garb or workwear that, before the 1960s, men rarely sported outside the workplace. Teenagers shook off Dad’s suit, looking to Marlon Brando in The Wild One (1953) and James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) for an edgier dress code. But what young men wore on their wrists remained dainty (by modern standards): dress watches with cases barely larger than a quarter, made of gold-capped steel and offering little to no water resistance.

Then, in 1964, the James Bond thriller Goldfinger featured Sean Connery sporting a Rolex Submariner Ref. 6538 under the cuff of a white tuxedo jacket, a striking combo that perfectly captured the character’s elegance and ruggedness in just a few frames of celluloid.