U.S. Secret Service Rolex Submariner and GMT II

[springer]

2015 marked the 150th anniversary of the United States Secret Service (USSS) which was established in 1865 shortly after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. The primary function and responsibilities of the Secret Service at the time it was established was for the investigation and suppression of counterfeit currency. Ironically, it would be many decades later before the Secret Service was tasked with the responsibility of protecting the president which would become one of its primary responsibilities.

As a tribute to the 150th anniversary of the USSS, the United States Secret Service Employee Recreation Association (ERA), located in Washington, D.C., offered several items of memorabilia for sale to special agents, officers and support personnel to celebrate this anniversary. One of the items offered for sale by the ERA during this anniversary celebration was a very special, highly detailed and engraved USSS star emblem found on the case back of a Rolex Submariner. Later, a Rolex GMT-Master II was added and sold along with the Submariner. The GMTs would also contain the USSS star engraving on the case back like found on the Submariners. This would be the first time that a Rolex had been offered for sale by the ERA.

The Rolex watches were supplied to the ERA by Tourneau NYC and were sold at full retail prices, $8550 and $8450 respectively for the Submariner and the GMT-Master II. Additionally, the watches were specially engraved for the United States Secret Service ERA by Rolex USA which had their own engraving facility and were not subcontracted to another dealer for the engraving. This engraving contained a very detailed, officially engraved U.S. Secret Service star emblem on the case back which was fully authorized by the U.S. Secret Service. (There were no Secret Service markings placed on the dials and it remained stock as it would on any other Submariner or GMT.) The watches came with a Certificate of Authenticity from the ERA which contained a description of the watch, the serial number of the watch and a notation that read, “Rolex Submariner Date Watch (or GMT II) ………..(a short description of the watch)…….IS AN AUTHENTIC AND GENUINE PRODUCT ENGRAVED EXCLUSIVELY FOR THE UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE EMPLOYEE RECREATION ASSOCIATION BY ROLEX USA” . The first few certificates contained a block on the certificate for Serial No., Model No. and Issue No. At some point,the ERA determined that they would issue a total production Certificate of Authenticity after all the watches had been ordered, and the Issue No. was removed from the block on the Certificate of Authenticity that was received with each watch. The certificates containing the total production numbers would not be mailed to the buyers until February 2016.

After the first few watches had been ordered, Tourneau gave subsequent buyers an appraisal letter for each purchase which contained the buyer’s name and address, watch serial number and a notation on the appraisal which read, “Engraved by Rolex USA for the U. S. Secret Service Employee Recreation Association”. In the authorized signature block on the appraisal, the name Edward Seelin is typed in the signature block and additionally, in some of the letters in the authorized signature block , Seelin’s name can be found both typed and signed by him. Tourneau also supplied some of the watches - not all - with their own Timepiece Warranty And Instruction Booklet which is depicted in a photo below.

The watches were available for purchase from the ERA during August 2015 and continuing through the end of December 2015. A total of 15 USSS Rolex watches were sold by the ERA - ten were Submariners and five were GMT-Masters. Once the sale of these watches had closed, the ERA issued the owners of each watch another certificate indicating the production number for each watch and where their watch fell within the total production orders. If the watch was 1 of 10 or 1 of 5 - depending on whether it was a Submariner or GMT-Master, it detailed where it fell within the production range of the watches ordered. (If a watch was numbered 1 of 10, it would have been the first watch ordered, and 10 of 10 would have been the last watch ordered for the Submariners and the same for the GMT Masters except it would have been 1 of 5, 2 of 5, 3 of 5 etc.)

The watches were sold only as pre-orders by the ERA. Once the watch was purchased, the order was placed with Tourneau by the ERA. Tourneau would have the watches engraved by Rolex USA and forward the watches to the ERA for distribution to the buyers. Before the watches were shipped by the ERA to the buyers, some of the box sets were specially wrapped by either Tourneau or the ERA and had a USSS silver foil sticker or Tourneau silver foil sticker affixed to the wrapper.

Once the buyers received their watches, some of the buyers observed that their watches still had their original case/bracelet stickers affixed to the watches which was not the case with all the watches. Some were fully stickered-up and some were not. The same is also true for the plastic bezel protectors – some were shipped with their bezel protectors and some were not. There was also a clear, plastic sticker placed over the case back engraving to protect it from damage.

If you are fortunate enough to find one of these rare and highly collectible USSS Subs or GMTS, consider yourself one of the lucky few. The total production was very limited with 10 Submariners and five GMTs produced.

Below are some photos from the ERA web site from when the watches were offered for sale along with photos depicting the USSS engraving found on the case backs of these very special USSS Rolex watches, as well as some of the various documents for the GMTs or Submariners that were mailed to the buyers. (Names and serial numbers have been obscured on the documents for privacy and security purposes.)

Photos from this thread or other photos from this web site may not be copied or reproduced without express permission from gmtforum.com. Links to this web page are welcome.

[springer]

Below is page 1 of the responses to the original thread which were recovered after being deleted during site maintenance. Page 2 could not be recovered.


Re: U. S. Secret Service Rolex Submariner and GMT-Master II

Post by nsumner » Mon Mar 28, 2016 1:57 am
Very cool, great reference for these ..I'm sure next to no one knows about them.

nsumner

Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Nov 18, 2014 11:07 pm
Location: Milwaukee, WI. USA
Favorite Watch: 5513,1675

Top
Re: U. S. Secret Service Rolex Submariner and GMT-Master II

Post by jinson » Mon Mar 28, 2016 2:10 am
Very well deserved recognition with two great Rolex references! Beautifully packaged. Thanks for the summary!

jinson

Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Mar 28, 2016 2:07 am
Location: CA, USA
Favorite Watch: 1967 Rolex 1675 GMT


Re: U. S. Secret Service Rolex Submariner and GMT-Master II

Post by Charlie3755 » Mon Mar 28, 2016 1:24 pm
Fascinating write-up Jay. A fabulous package and a very interesting limited edition that seems appropriate for the USSS.

Charlie3755

Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Nov 29, 2014 2:55 am
Location: Dallas, TX, USA
Favorite Watch: 16750

Top
Re: U. S. Secret Service Rolex Submariner and GMT-Master II

Pos tby Dwhite » Mon Apr 18, 2016 4:49 am
Great watch for the USSS. I enjoyed the read and would love to find one someday.

Dwhite

Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Feb 25, 2015 5:16 pm
Location: Reno
Favorite Watch: GMT

Top
Re: U. S. Secret Service Rolex Submariner and GMT-Master II

Post by Crowncollection » Mon Apr 18, 2016 5:01 am
I am not a believer sorry. Sales pitch IMHO

Crowncollection

Posts: 16
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2015 5:56 am
Location: New south Wales, Aus
Favorite Watch: Vintage day date

Top
Re: U. S. Secret Service Rolex Submariner and GMT-Master II

Post by RLXlover » Mon Apr 18, 2016 5:20 am
I saw some info on this watch elsewhere and just read the article. Very nice and congratulations to those that made the purchase.

RLXlover

Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2015 5:13 pm
Location: Florida
Favorite Watch: Daytonas

Top
Re: U. S. Secret Service Rolex Submariner and GMT-Master II

Post by Jay » Mon Apr 18, 2016 2:05 pm

Crowncollection wrote:
I am not a believer sorry. Sales pitch IMHO

Not a believer in what? What's the sales pitch?

The watches were sold by the USSS/ERA to members of the USSS and engraved by Rolex USA. Seems very self-explanatory if you read the post again.

User avatar
Jay

Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 9:10 pm
Location: USA
Favorite Watch: Vintage

Top
Re: U. S. Secret Service Rolex Submariner and GMT-Master II

Post by Gibson » Mon Apr 18, 2016 5:00 pm
Although I stop by and do not post much, I saw this article and thought how neat this is.

Very cool watch and its nice to know that Rolex engraves more than corporate logo or Daytona 500 Winner watches.

Gibson

Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2014 5:18 am
Location: Charlotte
Favorite Watch: Datejust

Top
Re: U. S. Secret Service Rolex Submariner and GMT-Master II

Post by AZ45 » Mon Apr 18, 2016 6:33 pm
Saw a post on this watch elsewhere. Nice watch and one I would like to find one but with only 15 specially engraved, probably wont happen.

AZ45

Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Mar 01, 2015 4:32 pm
Location: Scottsdale
Favorite Watch: Sub 5513

[Haymaker]

That is a beauty.

[springer]

I've received several questions lately concerning these very limited USSS watches produced during 2015 in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of the United States Secret Service. If you would like to post your questions here you are welcome to do so, or, you may contact me via a private message.

jP