Rolex Submariner Surfing Safari

 Rolex Submariner

Surfing Safari

What's as cool/rad as a Rolex Submariner in the life aquatic? Is this a trick question, you ask!?!! Nope. The answer is SURFING. As The Beach Boys sang: 

Let's go surfing now, everybody's learning how, come on and safari with me...

Rolex's history with surfing is fascinating. In the past they used to give out Rolex watches for participants who won Surfing championships. Nick Gould did some research and discovered they used to give lady surfers Datejust models, and men Submariner models as we see below with World Champion Surfer, Shaun Tomson.

A Rolex Submariner is the ultimate Surfing watch, and even though it was originally intended to be a diving watch, it is the ULTIMATE all-around watch for the life aquatic. Below is a fascinating Rolex Surfing ad from 1972 featuring a single red Submariner, which I recently discovered. Notice it is from Buenos Aires, Argentina...The two Rolex Surfing ads below are the ONLY ones I have ever seen, which leads me to believe that Rolex didn't think it was a lucrative market to advertise to, but damn they are COOL :-) In particular, I LOVE the illustration of the surfer on this first vintage Rolex ad...

A reader on the @Rolex.Magazine Instagram page mentioned the surfer in the add looks like Tom Cruise, with a short neck.

 Single Red Submariner 

[Reference 1680]

Rolex made the Single Red Submariner from 1967 to 1976. The Single Red designation came from the Single Red SEA-DWELLER which was developed to be tested in prototype for early 1967. Below we see another Rolex Submariner ad from the 1970s.

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