First Rolex Sub...a 1680.

Happy Lunar New Year! A new year...a new interest. Bought a couple vintage Rolex since someone I knew was selling them at a decent price.

Never researched much on Rolex or the 1680, but of course I did for this one. The bezel that came with this Rolex Sub 1680 was a thin font service with luminova. I was able to find this bezel for this 1680 from a watchmaker that had it in his drawer for 20 years.

How decent/bad is this faded bezel? It at least has fat fonts. Got a good deal on it too. Total for the whole watch was a sub price...lol.

Last pic was the original condition I picked up the 1680 Sub.

The watch actually looks lighter in the sun and seems to have a better overall fade with less dark blacks and more greys. I tried to take a better representation of the fading with a desk lamp, but this is how it should look outside.

That's an aftermarket crystal and it looks to have been "upgraded" to a 703 crown and tube... it should be 702 crown. If you see the O-ring on the tube when you unscrew it, that will confirm it.



I don't have a straight-on picture handy, but you can see the shape of the "top hat" crystal here. date will have more magnification with the correct crystal as well. Note my narrower 702 crown as well.

Thank you for that analysis. Yes, the crystal was recently replaced, and the triplock crown is a 703 with the large tube. I don't know how much effort I will put into trying to replace the crown with a 702, unlike finding an A1 for a vintage Speedmaster...lol. But I guess it is noticeable. The crystal as well.

How about the bezel? Anything stand out regarding the authenticity as a genuine Rolex? And is this MK3 bezel also for an earlier Sub than a 1680 white lettering?

The bezel looks appropriate to me. There was a lot of overlap of parts used v serial ranges… it’s not an exact science, but certain parts are found within certain ranges.

Here’s some pics of mine. I haven’t worn it for a while but you can see it. It’s a 3.9m serial so possibly a red dial originally. It came to me with a service dial and I found a Mk. I white dial for it- the overlap.