Beyond Luxury: The Story of Rolex and the Navy SEALs

Beyond mere durability, the Rolex Submariner was also chosen for its practical utility in the field. For a combat diver, precise timekeeping is not a matter of convenience; it is a critical component of mission success and safety. Coordinating rendezvous times, tracking decompression limits, and monitoring the duration of a mission all depended on a timepiece that was both accurate and easy to read. The luminous markers on the Submariner's dial ensured that divers could read the time in the dark, murky waters where they often operated. This combination of ruggedness, precision, and readability made the Rolex Submariner a trusted and essential piece of a SEAL's gear. It was so integral to their operations that it was, for a period, considered a standard-issue item, sometimes issued alongside its more affordable, but equally robust, cousin from Tudor, which was also a maker of professional dive watches.