How about a Rosey 7016? Gotta love them!

[John in MA]

I know it might be sacrilage but I've always been a larger fan of the Tudor Subs then the Rolex Subs........Yikes! Well, for me the penultimate grail of mine has been a Tudor Submariner Rose 7016. Hope you don't mind a story guys but I'm so happy to finally have it that I figured I'd post it up.

You see, many moons ago I came across Les Zetlein's Rose 7016 on the web and fell in love with the darn thing.



Everything about it screamed coolness to me. So much more then my snowflakes which I had at the time. It was the perfect cross between the 7928 (that beautiful dial) and the easier to repair ETA. What I didn't know at the time was that they are VERY hard to find.

So about 4 months ago I was searching ebay and came across a 7016 that was a put together. Here it is with my 9411 and 76100 (both of which have been sold since then)



It had a 9401 service dial but correct snowflake hands on it. Had an original high domed crystal and domed insert as well. Showed it to a buddy of mine and he immediately started asking me questions about the case. You see, this case was different from ALL the other subs I've ever owned. The crownguards were different, the lugs were slightly different as well. Well it turns out that on the Tudor Subs from I 68, the cases are different and from what my friend was telling me (he's more knowledgable about this then I), they all came with a rose dial. This one had the tells which were a semi-pointed crownguards and the different lugs. See the next image to see what I'm talking about. It also had the 7528 I 68 caseback stamping.




I was almost there! Just needed hands and a dial now.....Well, my buddy had a dial but no lume. Still needed hands which are IMPOSSIBLE to find. Then I was lucky enough to get this when I went to Hong Kong in September.



Yep, another rose Sub. Same case profile and everything. It was too far gone to resurrect though so I kept the hands (which were good) and parted the rest out. Wait a minute you say.....Different case? Nah..Your case is just overpolished....Well....nope. Here's a shot of the crownguards of the HK Rose that I parted out. Same profile.



So I had all the bits and pieces.....Sent the hands to my buddy in canada who had them lumed in vintage lume as well as the dial (which wasn't lumed). While I know it's not kosher, I like to see the time at night and I'm never getting rid of this...My penultimate Grail Sub. So, here she is all put back together with the right dial and hands as well as a USA rivet bracelet.




So what is it about the case? Why was it different? I have NO idea. All I do know is that I have also owned a shield dial 7016 that was stamped 7528 II 68 and it was CLOSER to the normal case profile like the others. The crownguards didn't have the familiar droop of the later ones but didn't have the point of the Rose. Here are a couple of pictures of it. The lugs were like the later subs as well. I have also owned a snowflake 7016 from 72 that had the normal case shape.





If you read this...Thanks guys. I appreciate it.

[achova]

Very interesting thread. I recently picked up a 7016/0 with this crown guard profile. It also has a I.68 dated case back and 2483 movement. It also has a rivet C+I Rolex U.S.A bracelet which seems to have been installed on many of these. I've seen a few references to the 7016/0 'semi-pointed' crown guard elsewhere but have heard much about the reasoning behind it.

Any others out there?

[Renoir]

Great post! Nice collection of Tudors you have there.

Thanks for posting the fantastic pics.

[sam.]

great collection and great picks!