- 4/4/09
- 2,140
- 92
- 48
I've mentioned before how I never used to understand the appeal of the Rolex Submariner. I would read about guys obsessing over the inner surfaces of crown guards, or pulling out micrometers to measure crown-to-bezel distances on WM9s. I'd read the comparisons and the extensive, expensive mods, but... nothing. The Submariner had a common and familiar shape that failed to excite anything in my brain. Then, exactly a year ago, I got my first Sub: a gilt MBW 5512 that ChiMan put together. Now, the 5512 is one of my favorites, and the it led me back through familiar territory that I'd ignored the first time round.
So why the TC Sub, and why now? As stated above, it was partly because I hadn't been turned onto the Submariner prior to that 5512. But my buying one was largely because of the excellent photos and terse descriptions that TC produced to sell the watches. TC let his photography do the talking, and the quality of the pieces was obvious. Also, in the months before buying the TC Sub, I'd made a couple of big orders that didn't go through: First, I missed out on the first batch of Noob PAM127s, and didn't want to wait 3+ months for the next production run. Later, I'd gone as far as sending funds for an MBW AP Royal Oak Jumbo, only for the seller to nix the deal at the last minute. I got my money back on both occasions, but I was starting to feel like Gregory Peck with that million-pound note. (Why is it sometimes so hard to spend?) And that's when I started to notice a whole lot of chatter on the forums about yet another high-end Sub...
There's not a whole lot to say about the build, as this watch is nearly an out-of-the-boxer. It's a stock V-Series, sent without an insert. I was lucky that the only one TC had in stock was a watch that had already had its rehaut obliterated. I've never liked the RER, so a watch with an untrimmed rehaut would have definitely gone to Texas for a shave. alligoat kindly provided me with a genuine Luminova insert, so I thought I was all set. And then this happened:
AUUGH! Somehow my watchsmith had gotten the bright idea of trimming the inner edge of that genuine bezel. Commenting in my tragic thread, sneed12 said he would fit a new insert onto the watch for free, and he wasn't kidding. I was so upset that I immediately ordered a new insert and sent it, and my poor Sub, to sneed. He worked quickly. A few days after receiving both packages, the installation was complete and sneed sent me a photo of the finished watch. It would be several more weeks until I got it back on my wrist (via vlydog), and I've been loving it ever since.
Note that, genuine insert aside, this is an unmodded Sub. It has the older datewheel overlay and the V2 (?) bracelet, both of which I'm pleased with. For now.
So here's my first modern Submariner--assuming "modern" applies to a design that was introduced in the the tail end of the 1980s. Onto the rest of the pictures:
Quick review: I like it a lot!
