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Get your hands on a Rolex Hulk (right now) and don’t be left green with envy Get your hands on a Rolex Hulk (right now) and don’t be left green with envy

Get your hands on a Rolex Hulk (right now) and don’t be left green with envy

Thor Svaboe

Sometimes you get a horological itch that you just have to scratch. My latest is focused on the verdant charm of a green Rolex. But I’ll need one of Luke’s “The Enabler” excuses first. I’m currently running all manner of different scenarios through my mind, a veritable roulette wheel of justifications, trying to find the right one to make this purchase remotely acceptable to my better half. Please help with suggestions! But that’s just stage one, the second challenge is actually tracking one down …

Rolex Kermit to buy

I’ve had a good look in the drawer marked “green”, and lo and behold if I didn’t find the “Hulk”. I do love green, and while seriously practising my strategy to make this a late Christmas present for myself, there are plenty of good reasons to have a closer look at this bright 116610V 40mm Submariner.

While I have nothing but respect for the all black iconic Submariner and its monochromatic tool sensibilities, I am a sucker for apple green, and this would easily be my jade-coloured drug of choice.

Rolex Kermit to buy

This year, with the advent of the revised but still classic Sub, the green-dialled Hulk disappeared, with a new more reserved green on the cerachrom bezel, and no green dial (AKA “The Kermit”). This new reference is bound to become madly sought after, but I don’t get caught in the investment game – this purchase will be made with my heartstrings, not bank account, in mind.

With this year’s new case that’s now 41mm, the alterations were as careful as they were minimal, yet the warm embrace of the more 904L steel is still a different feeling to the ubiquitous 316 – Rolex did have a point in the ’80s when they advertised it as a precious metal.

Some people prefer the slightly more slender lugs of the new Submariner, while I enjoy the more muscular, broad-shouldered look of this timeless 116610V, ever proportionate and with a deep feeling of evolutionary ergonomics. While some fans get nit-pickily obsessive, and discuss whether a millimetre makes a difference, the other side of the table cites boredom as the reason for their frustration. But I actually still see a bona fide Tool Watch. That may sound mad with Rolex Submariners popping out of every other CEO’s tailored shirt sleeve and carefully placed in the resort safe to not get wet in the pool. Come on! The inherent toughness of the 904L steel case is one of the reasons Rolex manages to get such a perfectionist polish on the delicate bevel caressing the tops of the case side, and the arcs of the crown guards. It’s harder steel to work with and, for that reason, also tougher than than your run-of-the-mill 316L.

Rolex Kermit to buy
The actual watch for sale.

With a hyper-legible diver’s dial, classically marked by the ever-imitated circles and rectangles, it just works, especially when trying to remember the history, and the fact that it was created as a pure timekeeping tool to keep you safe underwater, while being accurate enough to ensure you could stay alive and not run out of oxygen. A dramatic scenario that has nothing to do with any of the boardrooms you might associate the Submariner with. And that’s why I would seriously enjoy this green comfortable wrist presence, because personality it has in spades. To me this means so much more than monochrome, easily brightening up any dark and damp winter’s day, and might even inspire a desk diver to find an adventure or two. Do you think she’ll read this and let me off, just this once?