I’ve always seen people in Rolex forums ask when Submariner began to use sapphire crystal, and occasionally someone will ask the time when Deepsea Sea-Dweller adopted sapphire.
But there is almost no systemic introduction about the time when Rolex series adopted the sapphire crystal.
Sapphire crystal often appeared together with golden Rolex, but the contemporaneous steel Rolex still used acrylic face.
The following information introduces sapphire crystal’s adoption year of Rolex mens watches, it is normal if there is one or two-year deviation.
Testing(1978):
In the early 70s, there were few Rolex watches that used sapphire crystal face, the first Rolex that used sapphire crystal was Ref. 5100, which was equipped with Beta 21 quartz movement, the next was ref. 1530, Ref. 1630, Ref. 1831.
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Small-amplitude Replacement(1978-1984):
Between 1978 and 1984, sapphire crystal successfully entered into replacement stage, some popular models that used sapphire crystal were born.
In 1978, Day-Date and Datejust(Ref. 16018, 16019), as well as OysterQuartz, they all started to use sapphire.
From 1981, the first Rolex sport model Submariner(Ref. 16800, 16808), Sea-Dweller(Ref. 16660) and GMT-Master(Ref. 16758) began to use.
After several years, in 1984, sapphire crystal was equipped on GMT-Master II(Ref. 16760), Explorer II(Ref. 16550) and the two toneSubmariner(Ref. 16803).
Period of Great Innovation(1989-1991):
In the late 80s, all Rolex models were equipped with sapphire crystal.
First was the self-winding Daytona(Ref. 1652X) in 1988, in 1989, Date, Datejust, Turn-O-Graph all adopted sapphire, also including GMT-Master(Ref. 16700), GMT-Master II(Ref. 16710, 16713, 16718). In 1990, Explorer(Ref. 14270) used sapphire crystal and in 1991, Air-King also used.
From 1978 to 1991, it took Rolex nearly 13 years to replace acrylic glass face with sapphire crystal, but the experimental period in 1970 was not included.
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Thought I should
hammer_animated.gif this.