Sometimes it is the little details that make all the difference. We recently showed you a couple of US Navy-issued Tudor Subs. They are incredible watches and rarely seen. But a watch that is for many the most desirable Tudor in existence is the square crown guard Submariner.
In 1959, Rolex decided to move the Rolex and Tudor Submariners away from the earlier iterations without crown guards. (Watch 101: A "crown guard" is metal protruding from the case to surround the sides of the crown in order to protect it from damage should it bang against something. Strong enough hits directly on the crown could bend or snap the stem (the rod connected to the crown for winding and time-setting purposes, leading to inconvenience or, if underwater, possible flooding of the watch.) The result was the square crown guard Submariner, as shown in promotional materials at the time. For Rolex, the new Submariner reference was the 5512, while for Tudor the new Submariner reference was 7928. Both references continued well beyond their square crown guard origins.
It is presumed that Rolex quickly found that the square crown guard made it a bit difficult to grip the crown in order to unscrew it and wind it. So a small run after that of square crown guard Submariners had the edges filed to be pointy, then the following run had more triangular pointed crown guards, then they moved to rounded crown guards. Sorry for nerding out there.
All this is to say that a square crown guard Submariner, whether made by Rolex or Tudor, is seen as one of the ultimate watches a mere mortal can own. Estimates vary on the total made, but there is general consensus there probably was not more than 100 made of each.
Only Vintage, a watch dealer in Rome, has one of these square crown guard Subs for sale, with price on request. For more information, click here.