Rolex Submariner 16610LV Kermit 'Flat 4' F Serial, 2003

Dealer description — S.Song Watches

Few watches are as closely associated with Rolex as the Submariner. Introduced in 1953 as a purpose-built diving watch, its basic formula would remain remarkably consistent over the following decades, gradually evolving through improvements in movements, materials and construction while retaining essentially the same design. In 2003, Rolex celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Submariner with the introduction of the Ref. 16610LV. Based on the existing 16610, the anniversary model represented a surprisingly significant departure for what had historically been one of Rolex's most conservative sports watches. For the first time on a stainless steel Submariner, the traditional black bezel was replaced by one in green, Rolex's corporate colour, with the letters "LV" standing for "Lunette Verte", or green bezel. The unusual colour combination would eventually earn it the nickname "Kermit". The changes went beyond simply swapping the bezel. The 16610LV also introduced what collectors now refer to as the "Maxi" dial, with substantially larger luminous hour markers and a broader minute hand. The result is a watch that remains immediately recognisable as a five-digit Submariner, but with a noticeably more graphic appearance than the standard 16610 produced alongside it. The present example is an early F-series watch featuring the particularly desirable "Flat Four" bezel insert. Found on the earliest examples of the 16610LV, the name refers to the typography of the numeral 4 within the "40" on the green aluminium bezel, where the internal opening has a distinctly flat rather than pointed top. More importantly, the Flat Four belongs to the earliest and considerably rarer period of Kermit production. These inserts are principally associated with the first Y and F serial examples before Rolex transitioned to the later pointed four typography. What was originally an almost insignificant production detail has subsequently become one of the key distinctions collectors use to separate the earliest 16610LVs from the much larger number of watches that followed. Otherwise, the 16610LV retains everything that made the five-digit Submariner such an effective everyday watch. Its stainless steel Oyster case measures 40mm across and is water resistant to 300 metres, paired with a sapphire crystal, Triplock crown and Oyster bracelet. Inside is the automatic Calibre 3135, the same robust movement that powered the standard Submariner Date throughout much of this period. The 16610LV would remain in production until 2010, and over those seven years a surprising number of subtle variations appeared. Changes to bezel typography and colour-ageing, dial printing and other small details have resulted in collectors identifying multiple different versions of the Kermit today. As with vintage Rolex, these differences were never intended to create separate models, but were simply the result of Rolex continually changing components throughout production. In many ways, this is what makes the Kermit particularly interesting today. It is arguably one of the last truly collectable modern Rolex sports references in the traditional sense, produced during a transitional period when small variations could still appear throughout a reference's production run. As Rolex manufacturing became increasingly streamlined and consistent with the six-digit generation, these sorts of variations became considerably less common. The early Flat Four sits at the very beginning of that story. It combines the slimmer case, aluminium bezel and proportions of the classic five-digit Submariner with the Maxi dial and use of colour that would become increasingly important to modern Rolex. Being both earlier and rarer than the later Kermit variants, the Flat Four has understandably become the version collectors pay the most attention to, and one of the clearest examples of why the 16610LV remains such an interesting reference to collect.