Designa Individual Submariner Racer S Embraces Advanced Materials and Racing Colours

Customised watches are a controversial subject among collectors. Diehard fans of a brand will tell you that to make even a single alteration will ruin the piece’s value and doom your soul to purgatory until the rapture comes. That stance is a little too extreme for me and while I can see the value in maintaining a watch’s factory settings, I also see the value in customising it so that it’s more exclusive and more expressive of your personal style. That’s where Designa Individual come in with their range of expertly customised watches like the Submariner Racer S.

What’s the difference between a good custom watch and a bad custom watch? Well, beyond taste, a well-designed custom job should enhance the characteristics and qualities of the original while adding a unique spin. Simply adding a million diamonds does not qualify – I’m looking at you Jake Paul. With the Rolex Submariner as your base, you want to embrace its rugged specs and highlight the iconic skindiver style display.

That’s exactly what the does. The first major update is the case, which has been totally replaced with high tech quartz fibre, also known as carboquartz, an incredibly lightweight, scratch resistant and durable material. Think of it like carbon fibre but instead of carbon, it uses silica. Very few watchmakers are capable of using this material and the only other one that comes to mind is Richard Mille with models like the RM 07-04.

What it means for the Submariner Racer S is a 41mm case in white with an incredibly distinctive layered pattern. Unlike carbon fibre, the pattern is regular and creates striations like you’d find in bedrock. It takes the standard case of the Submariner and improves its scratch resistance, makes it lighter (the whole piece weighs just 55.1g) and provides a cool visual update.

Another signature element of the Submariner is the bezel and for this Designa Individual have used carbon fibre with a forged carbon aesthetic. It provides a dark contrast to the white quartz fibre and breaks up the regular pattern in favour of a more organic randomness. Carbon fibre is the material that put Designa Individual on the map, especially following projects like The Black Grail Nautilus. However, while it’s a new material, stylistically it retains the clean design language of the Rolex.

The same can be said of the dial, which is perhaps the area of the watch that stays the truest to the original. It has the distinctive array of circular, rectangle and triangle hour markers on a black base that make the Sub incredibly legible underwater, especially as the markers are coated with SuperLuminova. The central hands are traditional too with the signature Mercedes hour hand.

What takes it to the next level with customisation is the addition of a splash of colour via blue hour markers at the cardinal points and an orange seconds hand – these colours are also seen on the markings of the bezel. The colours have been chosen to emulate popular race car liveries – it particularly reminds me of the Gulf colour scheme from TAG Heuer’s Monaco – hence the name Racer S.

Rolex Calibre 3235

Beneath the customised surface, the mechanics are all Rolex as it houses the Calibre 3235 automatic with 70-hour power reserve. Which, again, is what you want from a customised watch because you don’t want to negatively impact the quality of the movement. That’s especially true of one as good as the 3235.

As for price and availability, the Designa Individual Submariner Racer S is built on request at a price of €48,990. However, production capacity is limited at 10 pieces to ensure exclusivity. It’s the perfect watch for those who want a Submariner a sportier aesthetic and embrace the advanced materials of high-performance vehicles.