In my three watch collection, a neo vintage Submariner is my sport/active watch. I don’t like the term beater; to me it implies being disposable. I see my Tudor Submariner more as being ultra durable. I don’t have to worry about it at all. In fact, the scuffs, scratches and fading make it look better. The value is in the oyster case and ETA movement. It has been recently serviced and pressure tested so I trust it to go surfing, swimming, etc. The 316L steel is resistant to corrosion and the aluminum bezel will, hopefully, one day get ghostly. Should water get in; the movement is the ETA 2824-2, I wouldn’t have to go too far or pay too much to get it reliably repaired.

As far as design, the watch is beautiful. It’s a 1991 75090 (came with box and papers). It most resembles the Rolex 1680 of the 60’s and 70’s. The Swiss only matte dial has painted tritium indexes with no white gold surrounds. It’s the classic Sub date but the proportions are shrunk to 36mm. My wrist is just under 7 inches around so it never feels too big but still has good wrist presence. All under 5k.

The cons: if old jangly bracelets aren’t your thing this is a no go. The links are all hollow and folded steel. It looks cool but has some stretch I do worry about. The clasp is pressed metal with a divers extension. It closes with a few snaps but feels like a solid bump could pop it open. Another drawback is the bezel action. The bidirectional bezel doesn’t click which is a let down; but more than that, rotating it while on wrist is almost impossible. The amount of pressure needed to turn the bezel feels like enough to damage the hollow end links.

For my style, I wear the neo vintage submariner very casually. If my shirt has a collar I will wear the 14270. The Tudor Sub is for the beach, weekends, and other shirt optional occasions. That said, I fully intend to wear this one on a NATO with a white dinner jacket one day 😉