Why Is Everyone Always Wearing A Rolex Submariner? Or Any Diver’s Watch, For That Matter?

As with most things, the simplest explanations are the best.  We can bang on about heritage, capabilities, etc. but the real explanation is right in front of us.

Adult fidget spinner.

When I first started wearing dive watches they were still tools for diving.  Computer are the real tool now. A dive watch on a dive is at best a redundant system. The Submariner is a well built dive watch. I was never issued a Submariner. I've owned them only from personal purchases. I don't own one today. I like other dive watch options much more. The dive watch is a great all around watch = water resistance, typically anticorosive stainless steel or Titanium etc. Most Submariner owners are one watch people.  The Submariner holds value, is a real jewelry statement piece and is tough. Lots of brands copy the look to capture the appeal & style. 

For me it's purely a matter of aesthetics - I just happen to like the look of many dive watches, such as the Submariner.  And as @Edge168n mentions, the bezel serves as a nice fidget toy (although I prefer bi-directional bezels for that).

I think it is the same reason people buy running shoes to wear to the grocery store, and buy an off-roader SUV in the suburbs. They started as tools, people like the image of an athlete/off-roader/diver so the emulate the style even if they can’t/won’t do the activities 

Everyone??

The are popular , for sure, but everyone?

They are well sealed against any foriegn intrusion and durable. They don't need to be babied.

We can take it to the next level, why do any of us wear watches?  Whether it is a dive watch, pilot's watch, etc. Few of us do anything the watches were intended for. We are glorified LARPers in that regard.  

Actually, can you have too much water resistance? 

weirdly I look around me and it’s all Apple watches…🤭

As the King of my watch Kingdom we wear watches to feel sexy…🥳

Something about the tapered 3-link bracelet + the coin edge bezel... beauty you can spot across the room.

I dare not move my Seiko bezels!! They will never be aligned again 😱

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkcGm-pWwsQ

Oh my friend, the bezels were never aligned😮

Good points... I often choose to wear a diver for the durability, but also use the rotating bezel to time things (grilling, etc.), keep track of the number of beers I've had at the pub, and entertain myself (and grand-neices/nephews).

I wore a diver on a rubber strap to swim on Sunday, and another diver on a bracelet to see Ringo Starr perform during a monsoon last night (I had lawn seats)... so water resistance is always appreciated. 

Nooooooooo!! 😱

😂

also I just tilt my head and squint a little then it’s aligned 😁

Dive watches are just good looks combined with "works in any circumstance" functionality. Few things in life are that simple, versatile and reliable at the same time.

Looking into getting a 39mm in the near future.

Overbuilt, easy to use, looks good with scratches and dings, and who doesn’t need to time something for less than an hour but not more accurate than +/- one minute above ground or under water?

I love dive watches. Like a lot of you already said, they’re just pretty badass and can take a good beating! 

Many watch wearers like to prove that they have no style and wear a tool on their wrist in public. Submariner wearer like to bring this to the next level and show that they are the tool of some unscrupulous AD.  I think it's a cry for sympathy.  

To me, I think the sub is a very versatile watch that can be easily dressed up and down. It’s a strap monster that can be paired with natos and leather straps. And the bond factor. The only problem is that they are everywhere. There are too many copies of them, which is why I like my 16600. 

Have to agree with this! 😅 that’s all I do with it, fidgeting around hahaha.

Having entered the hobby through asymetric dress watches - Richard Arbib designed Hamilton Electrics from the 1950s/60s, I quickly graduated with a double major in chronographs and dive watches.

Why do I wear dive watches? I think it's the original - the first - the iconic dive watch that set the standard for every dive watch that followed - yes the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms. On reading an article about the Fifty Fathoms and seeing an example of the original from 1953 something just clicked. I was seduced by the ultimate image of cool - this iconic design that forever changed how we thought about the look and functionality of a watch. 

Perfection in design like so much of the mid-century designs. Let's face it, how cool is it to be the watch that was copied by Rolex when it released the first dive watch homage as the Submariner shortly after the Fifty Fathoms.

I guess that same look and style encapsulated in the 60th Anniversary reissue of the 1959 Squale dive watch - so very much like the Fifty Fathoms because Squale made the cases for Blancpain - firmly hooked me since it was a watch that I could actually afford to buy.

I now have a modern Fifty Fathoms in the collection, but I am forever keeping my eyes open for a true vintage reference from the early 1950s.

Since someone else mentioned trucks earlier, I'll use my argument for owning a truck over a car/SUV: A truck(dive watch) can do anything a car(dress watch) can, but a car can't do what a truck can. 

As others have mentioned, dive watches are built to be rugged, and legible. 

I don't dive, but I do need a watch that can go from the office, to the field, to aboard ship. Field and pilot's watches also fit the bill, but they usually lack the convenience of a timing bezel.  

I was born in the early 60's and most watches I saw when I grew up had no water resistance or even if they did it was still a smart thing to take them off when approaching a faucet. Therefore a watch able to continue working while being submerged in water was a big deal and bordering on miraculous if you could forget about taking it off while swimming. 

So I grew up admiring dive watches and thinking that those who could afford them where very cool and that I should try to be like them. 60 years later I find that I have not one, but at least half a dozen watches that can continue to work even if I'm crushed to a pulp by the abyssal pressure. I'm cool, I made it!

50 Fathom some day in the future. Meanwhile….

You can. JOMW just reviewed a Xeric with 1000m water resistance, and it is a monster. SanMartin also makes a 1000m-watch, and it's 17mm thick. Not sane choices.

Regarding the car/truck argument... You do not live in Europe, do you? There are many roads here you could not drive a truck on, and many city centers where you could not park one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_eLViH7_YI

Correct I live in Canada, where they are extremely few places you can't take a full-sized truck (F-150, Silverado, Ram 1500, etc..), but there are many places you can take a truck that you can't take a car that you want to keep in running condition. 

In my job a dress watch is a poor fit because I need a watch that can take manual labour,  as well as field and shipboard conditions. If I had a different job, a dress watch might be perfect. 

Well, that's a watch that's too big, but it doesn't have too much water resistance. The fact that you don't have to worry about getting a dive watch wet is a real advantage from my perspective, even if you just plunge your arm into a body of water.

I wear a dive watch because I go in the water every day.  I don't wear a Rolex.  Seikos with NATO straps.  Opposite of desk diver guy.  

absolutely!