Following a similar life cycle as the Rolesor blue, the gold replica watch first appeared two years later in 1990. With the same case style, it has the slimmer lugs sweeping elegantly into the bracelet that purists consider the most well proportioned of all the Sub’s many iterations. The pre-Maxi blue dial with its slender hands and smaller, gold-ringed indexes is beautifully readable, even with the contentious lens over the date window at three o’clock; The Cyclops—splitting opinion since 1954. 
The upgrade stuck with the same aesthetics and class leading innovations as most of the latest generation of the fake Rolex sports watches. A more meaningful looking physique and with the vibrant sunburst blue dial swapped in favor of a smoothly uniform replacement, to better coordinate with the matte tones of the Cerachrom bezel.
The Oyster bracelet also received a substantial modernization, as it had on the Rolesor example. Much maligned in its earlier versions for its fragility, the newest form of the band has given solid end and center links that added a real feeling of sturdiness, along with that most beautifully over-engineered of all features, the Glidelock clasp. Securing the watch to the wrist with all the surety of a closing bank vault, it allows for the bracelet to be extended in simple 2mm increments up to 20mm, all the better for easily slipping the fake watch over the sleeve of a wetsuit, or just to loosen it up as the wrist expands during the day.
Immediately taking the trophy as the most significant model in the Sub family, the rolex Submariner watch comes with the same lacquered blue dial and Cerachrom bezel as its stable mates, but is a more low-key head-turner than its yellow gold alternatives.
Following the tradition for unfortunate nicknames that started with the two green Subs, the Kermit and the Hulk, this latest splash of color soon became the most popular as the Smurf. Not the kindest epithet certainly, but one that at least shows more imagination than the ‘Bluesy’ label attached to the first of the Rolesor versions above.
Made from metal forged in Rolex’s own foundry, the white gold used for the Smurf is solid all the way through, as opposed to the Rhodium-plated examples found on many competitors’ replica watches. Would you wear a solid white gold Rolex on a Scuba dive? Well, it’s your privilege, but it’s comforting to know a pricey piece of horologic art is going to survive an unplanned dip in the pool.