By Oren Hartov

Copyright

There was a time in the late 1960s to the mid-1970s in which Robert Redford’s mug was inescapable. From The Candidate to All the President’s Men to Three Days of the Condor, this handsome, all-American actor was the face of Hollywood. Pairing up with Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969, he kicked off a career that would span decades, only retiring from acting in 2018. At the time of his death early Tuesday morning, he was 89.
The 1970s, of course, was a pretty wonderful time to come up in Hollywood: From the wide collars to the outrageous prints, the sartorial climate was one of disco-fueled experimentation—a far cry from the buttoned-up formality of the 1950s and 1960s. And the watches? They were pretty darn great, too: Though it was produced in the late ‘60s, the ref. 1680 “Red” Submariner that Redford wore in both The Candidate and All the President’s Men is now considered a highly desirable classic. Of course, back then, what was novel wasn’t so much the red dial text for which it’s known today, but the fact that it had—for the first time in the Submariner’s history—a date window. Removing the model from its deep-diving context and lending it a bit more everyday utility was a move that would foreshadow the Crown’s transition from strict tool watch manufacturer to full-on luxury maison.
For Redford in the early 1970s, however, the “Red” Sub was just that: An everyday timekeeper that happened to have a bit of red text on it. And not only did Redford wear this watch off-camera but it became central to a couple of his roles. (You have to think there was something to the Redford-Red Sub connection.) The Sub is there prominently in the poster for The Candidate. Redford also wore the watch in All the President’s Men because it was his—unlike his Method-acting costar Dustin Hoffman, he didn’t feel the need to inhabit his characters completely, even when they were based on real-life, living people. Rather, he brought a bit of his own personality and charm to each role, visible to the audience via the Sub’s gleaming Oyster bracelet as it hung casually off his right wrist. (Redford was left-handed.) It wasn’t the only time Redford would wear his own watch during a production, either: Playing a CIA staffer in way over his head in Three Days of the Condor, he reps the equally cool Doxa SUB 300T ‘Sharkhunter’ on a Bund-style leather strap.
Though the “Red” Sub would go on to become one of the most collectible Submariners in the model’s 70-year history—with prices for a good example sometimes topping $30,000—it was merely a well-regarded tool watch from a reputable manufacturer when Redford picked up his example. And that, of course, is the charm of many of our most beloved screen icons of the ‘60s and ‘70s: With due respect to modern-day stylists, these men weren’t dressed by anybody other than themselves, and they weren’t posturing. They were typically wearing their own clothes, their own watches, and operating with their own swagger—and looking killer doing it, too.
Redford was among the last of that generation, and in considering the “Red” Sub, it’s tough to think of a watch that better embodies the actor’s legacy.