Rolex, Tudor and the Navy SEALs
The SEAL watch was mostly a Tudor 7928, and many were modified right here in Coronado. What the Navy actually issued, and what SEALs wear now that nothing is issued.
3 min read
The watch most closely tied to the Navy SEALs isn't a Rolex at all. It's the Tudor Submariner reference 7928, issued in numbers through the Vietnam era, and a good many of them were modified in Coronado, just across the bay from my showroom. Rolexes were worn too, mostly bought privately. Nothing is issued today.
The other day I came across a video online called something like Exposing the Secret History of Rolex and the Military. I wasn't impressed. It was informative enough for someone who didn't already know any of it, but nothing in it was secret. Is the role of a Rolex in the WWII escape stories somehow classified? Is Hans Wilsdorf sending watches to prisoners of war a hidden fact? The title was about views, not about the contents. When you're dealing with Rolex, why bother with clickbait? People are already interested.
So let me tell the actual story, which is better than the marketed one.
What watch did the Navy actually issue to SEALs?
Mostly Tudor, not Rolex, and that surprises people who expect the crown.
Tudor had been supplying the US Navy since the 1950s, and the reference 7928 is the watch that built the legend. Produced from roughly 1960 to 1968, it ran a 39mm steel case and a Fleurier calibre 390, and functionally it was Tudor's answer to the Rolex 5513. It went out to SEAL teams and Underwater Demolition Teams in quantity, typically on a black fabric strap. After Vietnam it stayed the most commonly issued SEAL watch well into the 1970s, when the 7928 gave way to the Snowflake Submariners. Rolex Submariners were certainly worn, but far more often they were bought by the men themselves, frequently tax free through Navy exchanges, than handed out by a supply sergeant.
What is a Coronado dial?
This is the part I like, because it happened here.
Issued 7928s often turn up with what collectors call Coronado dials: field modifications carried out either in theatre or by Navy watchmakers at Coronado, California, to make the watch harder to see and easier to read. That meant matte black refinishing, reprinted or hand-painted dials, and lume removed or darkened so a wrist wouldn't glow at the wrong moment. A watch that has been repainted by a Navy watchmaker is, in ordinary collecting terms, a damaged watch. Here it's the opposite. The modification is the provenance, and a documented Coronado piece is worth considerably more than a clean one.
If you're in San Diego and you've inherited a beat-up old Tudor from someone who served, this is exactly why you don't get it refinished before somebody looks at it.
Did Rolex really send watches to prisoners of war?
Yes, and the real version is more interesting than the film version.
When Allied airmen were captured, their watches were routinely confiscated. Hans Wilsdorf let POWs order Rolexes directly from Switzerland and told them not to think about paying until after the war. Corporal Clive Nutting ordered a steel Oyster chronograph, reference 3525, into Stalag Luft III and had it by August
- His correspondence with Wilsdorf survives and sold at auction with the
watch in 2007.
Here's the detail the clickbait version leaves out. Nutting never got through the tunnel. The escape was discovered before his turn came, which is very probably what saved his life, since fifty of the men who did get out were shot. He later consulted on The Wooden Horse and on The Great Escape itself. So the famous "escape watch" didn't time an escape. It belonged to a man who was spared one.
What do Navy SEALs wear now?
Whatever they want, because the Navy has no official SEAL watch and Rolexes aren't issued.
Plenty still choose mechanical dive watches, partly to honour the men who came before them and partly because a watch with a real depth rating and no battery is occasionally the only thing that still works. Most operators today wear something far cheaper and more disposable, and there's no shame in that either. It's the right tool for the job, which is the whole point and always was.
If you're looking for a pre-owned Rolex or a vintage Tudor in San Diego, get in touch. If I don't have what you're looking for, I can probably find it for you. Give me a call or drop by our La Jolla showroom.
