The ROLEX SUBMARINER MISLUB can be considered a historic watch with a fascinating story to tell. When the first series of ref. 6538 Submariners was given to the divers of the Royal Marines’ Special Boat Squadron (later renamed to Special Boat Service), the divers reported that it was extremely difficult to rotate the bezel as they were wearing their diving gloves. Also they expressed the need for a watch with a solid strap that it would be more convenient to wear while diving.
In order to fulfil this request Rolex decided to create a special model just for them with ROLEX SUBMARINER MISLUB. This was the beginning of the very limited collection that counted only 21 watches and that would be the base of the amazing the Submariner Reference 6538. The watch was named therefore Mislub under the Reference A/6538.
ROLEX Submariner MISLUB Ref A/6538
ROLEX SUBMARINER MISLUB and Public
As ROLEX SUBMARINER MISLUB was only produced for military reasons it was never available for the public, therefore from the beginning was considered a highly collectable watch. As there was only 21 watches produced there were all produced at the same time therefore all the watches have the same manufacturing date of the final quarter of 1957.
ROLEX SUBMARINER MISLUB Characteristics
As the divers asked for a specific bezel that would be easy to rotate while wearing their diving gloves Rolex created a bezel that was more extended making it much more helpful for the divers. The new bezels were made of German Silver, the dials were kept the same the only difference was that Rolex decided to replace the 200m=660ft with the 200/660 and change the color lettering of the Submariner with red.
Want to learn more about Rolex History? Check out our article that describes how everything started.
Feel free to contact and share your thoughts with us your feedback is important as we are trying to create a unique interactive community for all the watch fanatics.
Vallée de Joux, Switzerland — Contributing Editor, high complications & independent watchmaking
Julien Favre learned the difference between good silence and bad silence before he was ten. Good silence was his grandfather at the bench in Le Sentier, loupe screwed into one eye, breathing shallow over a disassembled minute repeater. Bad silence was the moment a hairspring pinged off the peg-wood and disappeared into the floorboards. The family atelier — three generations of movement servicing for the maisons that carpet the Vallée de Joux — was never framed as a legacy Julien was expected to join. It simply was the house, the way weather is the house in a mountain valley.
He resisted it, predictably. He studied economics in Lausanne and spent two years in Geneva watch retail, selling the objects rather than opening them. What pulled him back was not sentiment but frustration: he found he could describe why a movement was beautiful far better than anyone selling it could, because he had seen its underside. He started writing — first a blog dissecting finishing under macro photography, then commissioned work for the trade press, then features that treated escapements the way music critics treat a fugue.
Julien now covers high complications, restoration, and the fragile economics of independent watchmaking for European and English-language titles. His reporting is unusually technical without being cold; he is as interested in the person hunched over the bench as in the tolerances they hold. He is skeptical of hype, allergic to press-release adjectives, and reliably the first to notice when a "revolutionary" caliber is a reworked ébauche.
He still returns to the family workshop each winter to service a single pocket watch on his grandfather's bench — a discipline, he says, that keeps his writing honest. A critic who cannot do the thing risks worshipping it. Byline version: Julien Favre is a contributing editor covering high complications and independent watchmaking. He grew up in a movement-servicing atelier in the Vallée de Joux and still works the family bench each winter
Vallée de Joux, Switzerland — Contributing Editor, high complications & independent watchmaking
Julien Favre learned the difference between good silence and bad silence before he was ten. Good silence was his grandfather at the bench in Le Sentier, loupe screwed into one eye, breathing shallow over a disassembled minute repeater. Bad silence was the moment a hairspring pinged off the peg-wood and disappeared into the floorboards. The family atelier — three generations of movement servicing for the maisons that carpet the Vallée de Joux — was never framed as a legacy Julien was expected to join. It simply was the house, the way weather is the house in a mountain valley.
He resisted it, predictably. He studied economics in Lausanne and spent two years in Geneva watch retail, selling the objects rather than opening them. What pulled him back was not sentiment but frustration: he found he could describe why a movement was beautiful far better than anyone selling it could, because he had seen its underside. He started writing — first a blog dissecting finishing under macro photography, then commissioned work for the trade press, then features that treated escapements the way music critics treat a fugue.
Julien now covers high complications, restoration, and the fragile economics of independent watchmaking for European and English-language titles. His reporting is unusually technical without being cold; he is as interested in the person hunched over the bench as in the tolerances they hold. He is skeptical of hype, allergic to press-release adjectives, and reliably the first to notice when a "revolutionary" caliber is a reworked ébauche.
He still returns to the family workshop each winter to service a single pocket watch on his grandfather's bench — a discipline, he says, that keeps his writing honest. A critic who cannot do the thing risks worshipping it.
Byline version: Julien Favre is a contributing editor covering high complications and independent watchmaking. He grew up in a movement-servicing atelier in the Vallée de Joux and still works the family bench each winter
