Tudor ref 7928

Tudor Submariner reference 7928 is one of the core vintage Tudor dive references and Tudor’s closest equivalent to the Rolex 5512/5513 era pieces. It is a highly collectible watch with many sub-variants, so details matter a lot when assessing originality and value.

Key specifications

• Introduced around 1959 and produced until roughly the late 1960s.

• 39 mm stainless steel case with crown guards (first Tudor Sub to receive crown guards), 200 m / 660 ft water resistance, acrylic crystal, bidirectional black bezel with aluminum insert

• Automatic Fleurier-based caliber 390, 18,000 bph, with “ROTOR / SELF-WINDING” text on the dial in a characteristic upward curve (“smiley” line).

Dial and hand variations

Over its run the 7928 saw multiple dial executions and lume eras, which is where much of the collector interest lies.

• Early examples: gilt chapter-ring dials with the Tudor rose logo and radium lume, often with “exclamation” or underline marks indicating the radium-to-tritium transition.

• Later pieces: matte open-minute-track dials with silver or white printing, tritium lume (“T SWISS T”), sometimes with lollipop seconds hands and still retaining the rose logo and four-line “Oyster-Prince / Submariner / Rotor / Self-Winding” layout.

Case and crown guards

The 7928 is also known for a progression of crown-guard shapes which significantly affect rarity and pricing.

• Very early: square crown guards (extremely scarce, likely low hundreds made), followed by sharper “eagle beak” guards.

• Later: pointed crown guards, then more common rounded crown guards for the bulk of production