Politician Dick Gordon spotted wearing a Rolex

Senator Dick Gordon of the Philippines — longtime politician, former Red Cross chairman, and former Mayor of Olongapo City — has been spotted wearing one of the most enduring tool watches ever produced: the Rolex Submariner Date reference 16610. In political circles where dress watches and formal complications tend to dominate wrists, a Submariner is a deliberate, grounded choice.

The Rolex Submariner Date ref. 16610 was introduced in 1988 as the successor to the ref. 16800, and it remained in continuous production until 2010 — a 22-year run that speaks to the model's near-perfect execution. The case measures 40mm in stainless steel (Oyster case), with a unidirectional rotating bezel fitted with a black aluminum insert. Water resistance is rated to 300 metres. At its heart sits the Calibre 3135, a self-winding movement featuring a Glucydur balance wheel and, in later production years, Rolex's Parachrom hairspring for improved resistance to shocks and magnetic fields. The movement offers approximately 48 hours of power reserve and hacks — a refinement that earlier Submariners lacked.

Among collectors, the 16610 occupies a sweet spot: it is modern enough to wear daily without anxiety, yet vintage enough to carry genuine historical weight. Enthusiasts distinguish between early "T Swiss T" tritium-dial examples and later luminova variants, as well as the coveted "16610LV" kermit edition with its green bezel insert, introduced in 2003 for the Submariner's 50th anniversary. A standard black-bezel 16610 in solid condition remains one of the most liquid assets in the secondary watch market.

For Senator Gordon, a man whose career has spanned crisis management, governance, and humanitarian work, the 16610 reads as appropriately unpretentious. A Submariner signals reliability over ostentation — a watch that works as hard as its wearer.

On the grey market, clean examples of the Rolex Submariner Date ref. 16610 with box and papers regularly trade between $8,500 and $12,000 depending on condition and dial generation, comfortably above original retail — a testament to the reference's enduring collector demand.