One page per reference: production years, caliber, case, water rating, and the lineage that connects it to what came before and after. No prices, no listings feed — the file reads the same in ten years.
| REFERENCE | PRODUCED | WHY IT MATTERS |
|---|---|---|
| Seiko 6217-8000/8001 "62MAS" | c. 1965–1968 | The first Seiko diver - 1965, internal design language that started everything |
| Seiko 6105-8110/8119 "Willard" | c. 1970–1977 | The asymmetric-case icon carried through the Vietnam era and immortalized on screen in Apocalypse Now |
| Seiko 6159-7000/7001 "Hi-Beat 300" | c. 1968–1969 | The 36,000 bph professional - a grail of the entire vintage Seiko catalog |
| Seiko 6159-7010 "Grandfather Tuna" | c. 1975–1978 | Launched June 1975 - the world's first titanium-case professional diver, designed by Ikuo Tokunaga with more than 20 patents on the case alone |
| Seiko 6309-7040/7049 "Turtle" | c. 1976–1988 | The definitive cushion-case diver - twelve years in production, first series with square crown guards then the -729A slim sibling |
| Seiko SKX007 (7S26-0020) | 1996–2019 | The people's diver - twenty-three years in production, the reference that introduced more people to mechanical watches than any other, discontinued 2019 |
| Rolex 6204 | c. 1953–1955 | The first Submariner shown to the world, at the 1954 Basel fair - though collectors still argue whether the big-crown 6200 was actually produced first |
| Rolex 6200 "King Sub" | c. 1954–1956 | The 8 mm big-crown professional and one of the rarest production Submariners - possibly produced before the 6204 despite the Basel debut order |
| Rolex 6538 "Big Crown" | c. 1956–1959 | The James Bond Submariner - on Sean Connery's wrist in Dr. No on a nylon strap borrowed on set, and in three more Bond films after |
| Rolex 5513 | c. 1962–1989 | The longest-produced Submariner - twenty-seven years as the non-chronometer workhorse, with more dial variants than any other reference in the line |
| Rolex 1680 "Red Sub era" | c. 1969–1980 | The first Submariner with a date - sources split its introduction across 1967, 1968 and 1969 |
| Omega CK2915 "Broad Arrow" | c. 1957–1959 | The first Speedmaster - the watch that moved the tachymeter scale from the dial to the bezel, an industry first |
| Omega CK2998 | c. 1959–1963 | The first Omega in space - Wally Schirra wore his privately bought CK2998 on the Mercury Sigma 7 mission in October 1962, three years before NASA certified anything |
| Omega ST 105.003 "Ed White" | c. 1963–1969 | The NASA qualification winner - the only watch to pass the agency's 1964-65 chronograph tender |
| Omega ST 105.012 "Moonwatch" | c. 1964–1968 | THE moonwatch - Omega Museum research confirms the 105.012 was on both Apollo 11 wrists |
| Omega CK2913 | c. 1957–1961 | Omega's first professional diver, born in the 1957 trilogy beside the Speedmaster and Railmaster: eight sub-variants, broad arrow hands, a bakelite bezel that cracks, and a dial that says 300 on a watch guaranteed to 200 |
| Omega 165.024 | c. 1963–1970 | The definitive Seamaster 300: the 42 mm asymmetric case, the thick fully graduated bezel, sword hands - built by two case makers whose changeover, and occasional missing caseback dot, the collector literature tracks closely |
| Omega 165.024 "Royal Navy issue" | 1967–1971 | The military 165.024: issued to British forces 1967 to 1971 with fixed strap bars, a circle-T tritium dial, sword hands, and caseback engravings, 0552 for the Royal Navy, W10 for the Army, that a thriving fake industry has been copying ever since |
| Seiko 3180 "Grand Seiko First" | c. 1960–1963 | The first Grand Seiko, launched December 18, 1960 to Seiko's own chronometer standard - caseback serials end the run in August 1963, though 1964 appears in most guides |
| Seiko 44GS | c. 1967–1968 | Daini's first Grand Seiko and the birth of the Grand Seiko Style: Taro Tanaka's Grammar of Design made steel, in a run of barely two years |
| Seiko 62GS | c. 1966–1968 | The first automatic Grand Seiko, bezel-free with the crown recessed at four - first sold in 1966 by the serial record, dated 1967 by Grand Seiko itself |
| Seiko 61GS | c. 1968–1975 | The hi-beat automatic built on Suwa's observatory-competition program: 36,000 vph, Special and VFA grades above the standard, and the most varied vintage GS line - intro sources split 1967 and 1968 |
| Rolex 6542 | c. 1954–1959 | The first GMT-Master, built for Pan Am's pilots - sources split between a 1954 Basel debut and Rolex's own 1955, the year the name was trademarked |
| Rolex 1675 | c. 1959–1980 | The twenty-one-year reference: crown guards arrive, and two decades of dial and bezel eras become the real dating instrument |
| Rolex 16760 "Fat Lady" | c. 1982–1988 | The first GMT-Master II: the independently set hour hand arrives in a thickened case, Coke bezel only - sources split the introduction between 1982 and 1983 |
| Rolex 16710 | c. 1989–2007 | The last five-digit GMT: eighteen years, three bezels including the Coke's final appearance, launched alongside the 16700 - sources split the start between 1988 and 1989 |
| Rolex 116710BLNR "Batman" | 2013–2019 | The first two-color ceramic bezel - the blue-black split Rolex had said the material would not allow |
| Rolex 1675/3 "Root Beer" | c. 1970–1980 | The first Root Beer: the steel 1675 recut in steel and yellow gold with a brown bezel and the matte brown nipple dial that named the whole line |
| Rolex 16753 "Root Beer" | c. 1980–1988 | The Clint Eastwood reference: quickset date, and a dial that changed mid-run in 1984 from nipple markers to the Tiger Eye sunburst, which is why two very different faces are both correct for this watch |
| Seiko 6139-6000/6001 | c. 1969–1971 | The first run of the caliber that entered serial production in January 1969 - Seiko's entry in the three-way race to the first automatic chronograph, against the Zenith El Primero and the Swiss Chronomatic consortium |
| Seiko 6139-6002 "Pogue" | c. 1971–1978 | The most famous yellow dial in watchmaking - Colonel William Pogue carried his own aboard Skylab 4 in 1973 and the nickname never left |
The file fills in one family at a time. Greyed files are open but not yet written.
RefFile records what was made: the reference, its specification, its production window, and its place in the succession chain. Watch production figures are mostly unpublished and even manufacturer date records are approximate — Seiko has said as much about its own archive — so the file marks approximate windows "c." and cites what can be documented. A spec sheet for a discontinued reference is sealed forever; that is the kind of page we write.