Before I get to the review of my Rolex Submariner Date 16610 pre-ceramic, I will give you a bit of the back story. It was whilst leafing through National Geographic magazines as a kid that made me get the Rolex bug – It seemed from the ads, that if you were an adventurer, explorer, sailor, diver or pilot, you would be wearing a Rolex .. In other words, if you had an exciting life, you most probably had a Rolex watch strapped to your wrist.

Well, it took me many years to actually get my own one, but a Rolex Submariner is my life watch. It comes with me kayaking, fishing, snorkelling, travelling. I love the shape of the Oyster case and the way light interacts with its’ satin and polished finishes, I love the deep gloss black dial on which the solid white gold hour markers seem to float upon. I love how tactile and precise the clicky bezel is – A pleasure to use every time I need to time something.. A dive, an egg or a carpark ticket.. My particular Rolex Submariner Date 16610 pre ceramic has the “pinhole” case which makes it super easy to swap out the steel bracelet for a military style nato, or dress it up with a quality perforated leather “racing” strap.

You can walk into a room full of people wearing “Haute Horlogerie” in the form of Patek, AP, Lange etc and you can hold your head high with a Rolex on your wrist. It is Rolex that perfected the waterproof watch back in the 1920s. The Submariner is available in many differing variants, from plain steel non date models to steel and gold and solid all gold models and they are all as rugged and capable of looking great with jeans and t shirt, under the cuff of a shirt and bespoke suit and with a neoprene wetsuit for scuba diving. It’s not by accident that you’ll find this watch on the wrists of professionals and some of the coolest people on earth. And not because they are “Brand Ambassadors” but because a Rolex Submariner is a bloody good watch!