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| ===Service dials (Beyeler)=== | | ===Service dials (Beyeler)=== |
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| Two service dials, both produced by Beyeler rather than Stern, exist in the surviving population. Beyeler took over Rolex dial production for several references after Stern consolidated its work, and the 1655 picked up service dials from that era. Beyeler-produced dials carry printing characteristics that distinguish them from the Stern production runs: slightly different pad-printing geometry, marginally different T-to-plot alignment, and occasional small variations in the coronet. A service dial on a 1655 is not a disqualifier — service dials are Rolex-original parts — but it is a value and originality signal that collectors weigh against an original production-era dial. The two service-dial variants within Beyeler production are sometimes referred to as Service Mk A and Service Mk B; the taxonomy here is informal. | | Two Beyeler-made service dials are known on the 1655. They are still Rolex parts, but they are not production-era dials, so they matter to value and originality. Collectors usually treat them as service-dial branches rather than as normal production marks. |
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| ===Tropical examples=== | | ===Tropical examples=== |
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| ===The Steve McQueen myth=== | | ===The Steve McQueen myth=== |
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| The 1655 is frequently called the "Steve McQueen" in dealer listings and general-press coverage. Steve McQueen did not wear a 1655. He wore Submariner references — a 5512 documented at the 1970 Sebring endurance race, and a 5513 that he gave to his stuntman Loren Janes around 1964–1964 which Janes wore through the late 1970s. The 1655-McQueen association arose from Italian distributor marketing in the 1970s and 1980s and has been corrected multiple times in editorial research, most thoroughly in Jake Ehrlich's Rolex Magazine series and Quill & Pad's Loren Janes saga. The nickname persists because it is commercially useful; the provenance behind it does not hold. Collectors who handle 1655 watches professionally usually call the reference the <code>Freccione</code> rather than the "Steve McQueen" precisely because the nickname carries a factual error. | | The 1655 is often called the Steve McQueen. It should not be. McQueen wore Submariners, not a 1655. The nickname survives because it sells watches, not because the history holds. Collectors who handle the reference seriously usually call it the Freccione instead. |
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| ==Market and collector context== | | ==Market and collector context== |