Rolex Submariner 116610LV Review

THE FIRST LOOK

Rolex Submariner 116610LV First Impressions

What hits you the moment you pick up the Hulk.

The Rolex Submariner 116610LV is one of those watches that photographs look nothing like it in person. Every Rolex watches listing you have seen online flattens the dial into a uniform bright green. In hand, the dial does something entirely different. It shifts from a bright shamrock in direct sun to a deep, almost bottle-green under indoor light, and the sunburst finish catches light like nothing else in the Submariner lineage. The first time you pick up a Rolex Submariner 116610LV, the word that comes to mind is not "green." It is "alive."

The second thing that hits you is the weight and heft of the case. The Hulk is the generation of Submariner that introduced the Super Case, and you feel it immediately. The lugs are thicker, the crown guards stand prouder, and the bezel is a fraction wider than the five-digit Submariners that came before it. Compared to the photos, the watch feels denser, more deliberate, more aggressive. It is still a 40mm watch on paper, but the geometry of the 116610LV gives it a wrist presence that punches well above its measurement. This is not a quiet dive watch. It was never trying to be.

THE WEARING EXPERIENCE

The Rolex Submariner 116610LV On the Wrist

How the Hulk actually wears, day in and day out.

The Rolex Submariner 116610LV wears like a 41mm watch despite its 40mm measurement on the spec sheet. The Super Case geometry is the reason. Thicker lugs, a wider bezel, and more aggressive crown guards fill the wrist in a way the slimmer five-digit Subs never did. On a 7-inch wrist, the Hulk sits confidently and squares off nicely between the wrist bones. On anything 6.75 inches and under, the proportions start to dominate. If you have historically worn a 14060 or a Tudor Black Bay 36 and felt at the upper limit, the Hulk will feel like a different size class entirely.

Weight sits evenly across the bracelet, and the 12.5mm thickness slides under most dress cuffs without drama. It is not a thin watch, but the geometry is well balanced, and the Oyster bracelet with its Glidelock extension lets you fine-tune fit to within a couple of millimeters in either direction without tools. That Glidelock system alone solves the single biggest comfort issue most divers have with metal bracelets, expansion in heat, and it makes the Hulk a genuinely wearable watch from the beach to a boardroom. It is the kind of watch that disappears on your wrist after ten minutes and then reminds you it is there every time light hits the dial.

SHOP THIS WATCH

Shop the Submariner

Browse authenticated Rolex Submariner 116610LV Hulk watches available now at WatchGuys.

If the specs and wrist presence line up with what you are looking for, here is what we currently have in stock. Every Hulk we list is inspected in-house and backed by our two-year warranty.

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BUILD QUALITY

Rolex Submariner 116610LV Specifications

Breaking down the Hulk from every angle.

Case

The Rolex Submariner 116610LV case is Oystersteel, Rolex's proprietary 904L alloy, and it is the defining example of the Super Case geometry. At 40mm across with a 12.5mm thickness and roughly 48mm lug-to-lug, the dimensions are deceptively standard. The execution is not. The lugs are noticeably thicker than on the preceding 16610, the crown guards flare outward more aggressively, and the bezel sits slightly wider on the case. Finishing follows Rolex's standard contrast formula, with brushed top surfaces on the lugs and case sides and a polished chamfer running between them. The transitions are clean, crisp, and consistent across every example we have handled.

The Triplock winding crown screws down with a firm, mechanical action and seals the case to 300 meters. The caseback is a solid, screw-down Oyster unit with no engraving on the exterior surface. Hand-winding the Hulk delivers the characteristic Rolex feel, smooth but slightly stiff compared to modern GMTs or Daytonas, with a crisp click when you pop the crown out to adjust the time. After ten years of owning a Submariner, this is the feel you recognize the moment you pick one up.

Dial and Bezel

The Rolex Submariner 116610LV dial is the reason this watch exists. It is a green sunburst finish that Rolex achieves by mixing gold dust into the lacquer, and the effect is unlike anything else in the Submariner catalog. Under direct sunlight, the dial reads bright emerald, almost electric. Move into an office or indoor setting and the color deepens to a rich bottle green with the rays radiating out from the center. The Chromalight luminous plots are circled in white gold, and the Maxi dial format means the hour markers and hands are noticeably larger than on the pre-2010 generation, which improves legibility dramatically in low light and underwater.

The bezel is green Cerachrom, Rolex's zirconium dioxide ceramic. Unlike the aluminum insert on the predecessor Kermit 16610LV, the Cerachrom is virtually scratch-proof and holds its color under UV exposure over decades. The minute markers are platinum, applied via physical vapor deposition, and they catch light against the matte ceramic surface. The action is 120-click unidirectional, firm and precise, with almost no back-play. This is the benchmark most dive-watch bezels are still measured against. The cyclops lens over the date at 3 o'clock adds the only asymmetry on the dial. Collectors either love or hate it, but the 2.5x magnification is genuinely useful for quick date reads.

Bracelet

The Rolex Submariner 116610LV bracelet is the three-link Oyster in Oystersteel, with solid end links, brushed center links, polished outer links in the clasp section, and the Oysterlock safety clasp with the Glidelock extension. Glidelock is the feature that makes this bracelet noticeably better than the pre-2010 Submariner bracelet. It lets you extend or shorten the bracelet by roughly 2mm increments up to about 20mm total, without tools, by simply sliding a mechanism inside the clasp. On a hot day when your wrist swells, or on a cold flight when it shrinks, you adjust in five seconds.

The articulation across the links is tight and smooth. There is no rattle, no play, and the taper from the lugs to the clasp feels substantial without being overbuilt. For a pre-owned buyer, the critical thing to check is bracelet stretch. A decade-old Hulk that has been worn daily will often show some looseness between links, and replacing or refurbishing a Rolex bracelet is expensive. We cover this in more detail below.

EXPERT TIP | Robertino Altieri | WatchGuys CEO

What to Check on a Pre-Owned 116610LV

"Three things matter on a used Hulk. One, bracelet stretch. Pinch the bracelet between two fingers and see how much the links separate. A tight bracelet is worth real money. A stretched one tells you the watch was worn hard and may be due for service. Two, dial mark. There are Mark 1, Mark 2, and Mark 3 dials on the 116610LV, mostly differing in text printing. Market premiums for specific marks are minimal right now, but some collectors chase the earliest examples. Three, case condition. The Super Case polishes easily and loses its factory edges fast. If a watch has been polished once, you will see the chamfer soften. If it has been polished twice, you will see the lugs rounded off. I always recommend buying an unpolished or lightly polished example even if you pay a small premium."

UNDER THE HOOD

Rolex Submariner 116610LV Movement Review

How the Caliber 3135 performs where it matters: on the wrist, every day.

The Rolex Submariner 116610LV runs the Caliber 3135, a movement that has been in production since 1988 and that has anchored the Submariner Date, Datejust, and Sea-Dweller through multiple generations. It is a 31-jewel automatic with a 28,800 vph frequency, bidirectional winding via the perpetual rotor, a Parachrom hairspring with Breguet overcoil, and a 48-hour power reserve. It is COSC-certified and rated by Rolex to +2/-2 seconds per day in Superlative Chronometer specification. In practice, most well-maintained 3135 examples we see run closer to +1 second per day, and some run near zero. This is a movement that has had more than three decades to prove itself, and it has.

Winding feel through the crown is firm, slightly resistant, and clicky in the way Rolex movements traditionally are. It is not the silky smooth feel of a Patek or a Lange, but it is reassuring and mechanical. Rotor noise during wear is minimal, just a faint whir when you shake the watch. The date changes crisply just before midnight, and the hacking seconds function makes it easy to set the watch to an exact reference time. After a full day off the wrist, a fully wound Hulk will still be running 30 to 40 hours later, which is the practical limit of the 48-hour reserve. This is the one spec where the Hulk shows its age against the current 126610LV Starbucks, which runs the Caliber 3235 with a 70-hour reserve and a more efficient Chronergy escapement.

Service costs for the Caliber 3135 at Rolex Service Center run roughly $800 to $950 as of 2026, depending on condition and whether any parts need replacement. Independent Rolex-certified watchmakers typically charge $500 to $700 for a full service on this movement. Rolex recommends a full service interval of approximately 10 years, which is long for a mechanical movement and speaks to how overbuilt this caliber is. If you are buying a pre-owned Hulk and service history is documented within the last five years, you are buying a movement that should run for another decade without issue.

EXPERT TIP | Robertino Altieri | WatchGuys CEO

Why the 48-Hour Reserve Is Not a Dealbreaker

"Buyers comparing the Hulk to the Starbucks always get hung up on the 48-hour versus 70-hour power reserve. I get it on paper, but I have been selling watches for a long time, and I have never once had a customer come back and tell me their Hulk stopped over a weekend. If you wear it Monday through Friday, take it off Friday night, it is still running when you put it back on Sunday night. The 3135 is one of the most proven movements Rolex has ever built. Reliability beats power reserve in real ownership every time."

MARKET VALUE

Rolex Submariner 116610LV Current Market Snapshot

What the Hulk costs right now on the secondary market.

The Rolex Submariner 116610LV trades between roughly $18,000 and $25,000 on the 2026 secondary market, with unworn examples sitting at the top of that range and well-loved pieces without box and papers landing nearer the bottom. Context matters here. The watch last retailed at $9,050 when Rolex discontinued it in 2020, so even the cheapest current example is carrying a 100-percent premium over original retail. At the 2022 hype peak, unworn Hulks briefly traded above $32,000. That peak is gone. What is left is a stable, discontinued reference trading on real collector demand rather than speculative heat.

The 12-month trend is quietly positive, up approximately 4.7 percent year-over-year per WatchCharts tracking, and the median sell time on the secondary market is around 16 days, which is fast for a watch in this price tier. Both signals point to a market that has absorbed its 2023 correction and is settling into long-term closed-set appreciation. Expect modest single-digit gains per year rather than another speculative run. For buyers, the most important pricing variable is completeness. A Hulk with original box, papers, warranty card, and documented service history commands a meaningful premium over one sold as watch-only, and that premium has widened as the reference ages out of the market.

HEAD TO HEAD

Rolex Submariner 116610LV Comparison

The Hulk against the alternatives buyers actually cross-shop.

Rolex Submariner 116610LV vs. Rolex Submariner 126610LV (Starbucks)

This is the cross-shop. A 2026 buyer looking at a green Submariner is almost always weighing the discontinued Hulk against the current-production Rolex Submariner 126610LV Starbucks, and the decision comes down to three things: dial color, case size, and movement. The Hulk is the only Submariner with both green dial and green bezel. The Starbucks keeps the green Cerachrom bezel but switches to a black dial, which reads as a fundamentally different watch. The Starbucks is also 41mm with slimmer lugs, which wears smaller and more elegantly than the 40mm Super Case Hulk despite the larger diameter on paper. And the Starbucks runs the Caliber 3235 with a 70-hour power reserve, a meaningful upgrade over the 3135 in the Hulk.

What the Hulk has that the Starbucks does not: the closed-set collectibility of a discontinued reference, the unique all-green aesthetic, and the Super Case wrist presence that many buyers specifically prefer. What the Starbucks has that the Hulk does not: current Rolex warranty, slimmer wearing geometry, modern movement, and a lower all-in cost, currently trading around $13,000 to $15,000 on the secondary market versus $18,000 to $25,000 for the Hulk.

Robertino's Take

"Every week someone asks me whether they should spend $14,000 on a Starbucks or $22,000 on a Hulk. Here is the honest answer. If you want the best daily wearer Submariner with a splash of green, buy the Starbucks. If you want THE green Submariner, the one people recognize from across the room, buy the Hulk. They are different watches solving different problems. The Hulk's premium is not about specs. It is about being the only one of its kind, and Rolex is not making another full-green dial anytime soon."

Rolex Submariner 116610LV vs. Rolex Submariner 16610LV (Kermit)

The other natural comparison is the Hulk's predecessor, the Rolex Submariner 16610LV Kermit, produced from 2003 to 2010 as the 50th anniversary Submariner. The Kermit was the first green Submariner and introduced the color to the collection, but it paired a green aluminum bezel insert with a classic black dial. It wore on the slimmer pre-Super-Case geometry that many vintage-leaning collectors actually prefer, and it trades at roughly $15,000 to $20,000 today depending on condition and whether you are looking at a "Flat 4" variant or standard dial. The Kermit is the more classical choice. The Hulk is the louder, more modern interpretation of the same idea.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Is the Rolex Submariner 116610LV Worth It?

The final word on the Hulk.

Yes, the Rolex Submariner 116610LV is worth buying in 2026. The combination of iconic green-on-green design, proven Caliber 3135 reliability, closed-set discontinued status, and a stable, appreciating secondary market makes this one of the most defensible pre-owned Rolex purchases you can make today. It is not the best value in the Submariner lineup. The current-production 126610LN is cheaper, thinner, and runs a more modern movement. But the 116610LV is the only Submariner Rolex ever built with a full green dial and green ceramic bezel, and that singularity is not coming back.

The Hulk is perfect for the buyer who wants a distinctive Rolex that holds its value, who has a wrist size of 6.75 inches or larger to carry the Super Case properly, and who understands they are paying a premium for rarity rather than for the latest technology. It is the wrong watch for someone on a tight budget who would be better served by the 126610LV Starbucks or the 124060 No-Date, for someone with a smaller wrist who will find the Super Case overwhelming, or for someone treating this as a short-term flip. The speculative window on the Hulk closed in 2023. Today's buyer should plan to hold for five-plus years.

Robertino's Take

"I have sold more Hulks than I can count, and I will tell you what I tell every customer. This watch is not about specs. It is about owning the only green-on-green Submariner Rolex ever made, and doing it at a price that is still far below what people were paying in 2022. Buy a clean example with papers, hold it for a decade, and you will be happy with the decision. The Hulk earned its name. Now it is earning its place in Submariner history."

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