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Actor Nicolas Cage spotted wearing Rolex

In the 2004 Disney action-adventure film National Treasure, Nicolas Cage plays Benjamin Franklin Gates, a historian and treasure hunter racing to uncover a conspiracy hidden since the founding of the United States. Sharp-eyed viewers will notice that Gates wears a stainless-steel Rolex Submariner Date reference 16610 throughout the film — a detail that aligns perfectly with the character's profile: capable, methodical, and quietly serious about his tools.

The Rolex Submariner 16610 entered production in 1988 as the successor to the reference 16800, bringing with it a upgraded sapphire crystal with cyclops lens, an improved crown-and-case architecture, and the then-new Calibre 3135 automatic movement. That movement remains one of Rolex's most important: a self-winding, 28,800 vph calibre with a paramagnetic blue Parachrom hairspring (introduced in later production runs), Rolex's own Paraflex shock absorbers, and a power reserve of approximately 48 hours. Water resistant to 300 metres, the 40mm Oyster case in 904L stainless steel set the benchmark for sports-watch construction across the industry.

The 16610 ran in production until 2010, when Rolex replaced it with the reference 116610 — a model that brought a larger case, redesigned lugs, and a Maxi dial. That transition instantly elevated the 16610 to classic status among collectors, who prize it as the last of a lineage stretching directly back to the original 1953 Submariner. Variants including the 16610LV — the so-called "Kermit" with its green bezel insert, released in 2003 — have become particularly sought after, but the standard black-bezel 16610 remains the collector's baseline reference.

Nicolas Cage is no stranger to high-end collecting: he has publicly pursued rare comics, castles, and exotic animals with the same intensity his characters bring to the screen. That Gates wears a tool watch rather than a dress piece is consistent with the character's grounded pragmatism — the Submariner is, after all, a watch designed to do a job, not to impress at a gala.

On the grey market, a clean Rolex Submariner Date 16610 in good condition with original papers currently trades around $12,000 USD — roughly on par with, and in some configurations above, its original retail price. Demand remains steady, driven by collectors who value the 3135-era Submariner as the definitive modern interpretation of the model before case-size inflation took hold.