SubC or BLNR as a daily

[CRM114]

Originally Posted by tie219

I'd keep the Sub, it's the original tool watch, can't go wrong. Plus the brushed bracelet will hide scratches better than the PCL's on the BLNR, especially with everyday wear.

Not even close to being the original. Breitling made the first wristwatch chronograph in 1915. Longines and others also produced more wristwatch chronographs between the World Wars for aviation navigation use. Later, there's Breitling's Chronomat (1941) and Navtimer (1952), both obviously tools which incorporated rotating slide rules. The invention of the wristwatch itself was for use as an aviation tool, by Louis Cartier for the flyer Santos-Dumont.

Then of course there's the German Luftwaffe watches specifically designed (designs that are still popular) for navigators and pilots produced by ALS, IWC, etc.. during WW2.

So, for 40 years before the Sub was conceived (50 if you count the invention of the watch) watches and chronos were being designed and used as tools in aviation navigation and other applications where measuring time/speed/distance is critical. Many included rotating bezels and markers similar to those found on aircraft flight instruments and clocks of that era. Rolex itself produced some of these earlier, time-measuring/turnable-bezel "tool watches", the Zerograph and Centregraph.

In 1953 Rolex released the Turn-0-Graph with it's turnable timing bezel, from which the GMT Master was derived and introduced in 1954.

The Sub wasn't even the first dive watch, it was the result of evolution. Various manufacturers (including Rolex for Panerai, Omega, Hamilton) were producing them in the 1930's and 1940s for the few military and commercial divers on the planet (obviously, there was no aqualung SCUBA yet) and the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms came out prior to the Sub in 1952 vs. the Sub's release in 1954. The turnable timing bezel on both dedicated dive watches was a migration of same from timing bezels on chronos.

The Sub certainly has it's place in watch history but watches weren't invented as wrist jewelry, they were used as a tool. Chronos in particular were dedicated "tool watches" and actually used by those who wore them.

This might be hard to imagine in 2018 since 99.99% of modern Daytona owners who anxiously wait for years to get their hands on one will never push it's chrono plungers to actually time anything let alone measure speed/rate, sort of like 99.99% of "manly, brushed-SS non-PCL tool watch" Subs will never see anything deeper than a swimming pool or splash in the surf at the beach who's owners' biggest concern will always be a scratch on their bracelet not a blood clot in their lung.