VSF Submariner: references, calibres and prices

What do the DD3135, DD3235 and DD3230 calibre codes mean?

Three codes appear against this line, and they map onto the case generation rather than onto a quality ladder. DD3135 is recorded against 3 references — 116610LN, 116610LV, 116619LB; DD3235 is recorded against 7 references — 126610LN, 126610LV, 126613LB, 126613LN, 126618LB, 126618LN, 126619LB; DD3230 is recorded against 124060.

That is the whole of what our records support. We are not going to tell you that one code keeps better time than another, because we have not measured them against each other on a timegrapher, and a number we have not taken is not a number we publish. What we can tell you is what is recorded as fitted to the watch you are looking at, and the table above gives you that per reference. If a seller answers "which calibre is better" without telling you how they measured it, you have learned something about the seller rather than about the watch.

Why do the 40mm and 41mm Submariners carry different reference numbers?

Because the case changed, and the reference number is what identifies the case. Our record holds 3 listing(s) at 40mm — the 116610LN, the 116610LV and the 116619LB — and 8 at 41mm, running from the no-date 124060 through the 1266xx family. A 116610LN and a 126610LN are both "a black Submariner Date", and they are still two different references on two different cases.

That is why the reference, not the nickname, is the thing to order against. A nickname is useful for talking to someone else about a watch; it is useless for buying one, because a word like "green Submariner" covers more than one reference and more than one case size. Match the reference number printed on the listing, then read the calibre and the price on the page itself rather than in a screenshot, because stock moves and the published figure is the one that binds.

What are the custom pieces, and why do they carry no reference number?

7 listings in this line are custom builds recorded under the Submariner heading but without a factory reference number — the DiW pieces, described by finish rather than by a model code: gradient dials, layered carbon, PVD and carbon bezels, forged-carbon cases. They are named the way they are finished ("Emerald", "Green Devil", "Carbon Stealth"), not by a number, and they are priced at $1,045 in the record.

So they are counted in the listing total above but kept out of the reference table, because there is no reference to group them under. Giving them an invented reference would put a code in front of you that does not exist, and the first rule we hold to is that a field we cannot verify is left out rather than estimated.

How should you read a Submariner listing on this site?

Start at the reference number, then the case size, then the material, then the price — in that order. The reference tells you the case and, from the table above, the calibre recorded against it; the price tells you what metal and finish you are paying for, since the spread from the lowest to the highest figure in this line is $237. Everything in the table is generated from the same product record the listings use, so it moves when the catalogue does.

The step that matters most comes after you order: photographs and a video of your own watch, sent for approval before dispatch. A bezel insert that sits a fraction off, a date window that is not centred and the way the seconds hand sweeps are all things a photo or a short clip can show you and a stock image cannot. Nothing ships until you have seen them and said yes. If you want the wider picture of how this line sits against the rest of what we carry, the guide to the Rolex range covers the other families.