My 5508 ghost Gilt Dial

[SubKing]

Hey all, was speaking with AAKVIPER in email and he asked that I stop by and share a couple photo's of my 5508 double silver gilt dial aka Gilt dial. not only is it a ghost dial but its also an exclamation point dial as well. this is the first ghost exclamation dial i have ever seen.
enjoy.

[Guillaume]

A pure beauty! Guillaume

[Timm]

Gorgeous! Thanks for sharing!

[AAKVIPER]

Jordan your ghost dial 5508 is fantastic and I have never seen this dial veriation with the lum dot a the "6" o'clock before..
So far I have only seen five including Jordan's in my travels.

Some particulars about the double silver print variation 5508 dial.

A brief background on the thin cased 5508 non crown guard seems to be in order. The 5508 Submariner replaced the similar in appearance 6536 and 6536-1 with 1030 caliber. But for a short time these thin cased models were produced at the same time. A ball park production figure for the 5508 Submariner would be from late 1957 to 62. The foremost advantage which the 5508 model shared over the 6536 examples was that it housed the updated 1530 caliber. For a collector or watchmaker this 1530 caliber made it easier to maintain then the harder to find 1030 caliber parts.

From my research this double silver rounded bottom coronet 5508 dial was a particularly an early one. I am not unfamiliar to this type of dial. I also owned an early 6536 thicker cased 1030 caliber Submariner with this style of dial. Being an early thicker cased 6536 with this type of rounded crown and double silver print dial made me wonder if at that time I had an early variant. Unfortunately, I sold the 6536 almost nine years ago not understanding rarity of this dial.

Being a low and early production dial I have seen a few more similar dial coronet configuration in my travels, one on an early 6542 GMT and a couple other early 5508 Subs. The 6542 and 5508's bore early serial # as well. All these models so far had sub 38xxxx serial numbers. Logically from what I have observed, this early 5508 two silver line dial was placed in early Sport's models for a few short years.

One will notice the more rounded dial coronate bottom and longer crown arms. The gold print fonts such as letters "R" non serif and "O" are unique on this 5508 variation.


This depiction below is a dial coronate from the more ubiquitous 5508 dial with a flatter crown bottom and a lower crown arm ends. The letters "R" with serif and "O" are with gold print as well.



My color change ghost dial

[stratct]

FINALY!!! Someone who takes movement pictures of they're Rolex's! Lol

[Chitown70]

Lovely watches guys. A 5508 or the more affordable 5513 has been on my wishlist for sometime now.

[topcat30093]

Two very beautiful looking pieces.

My congratulations to you both.

I love to read about the way Rolex slightly changed things like their fonts etc.

[AAKVIPER]

You are correct this Ghost dial might have been on the 6536 as well..as I aforementioned some very early 6542's I believe had this silver fonts as well..

Arthur