I am somewhat puzzled why a 9 million Rolex would be dated to 1985? And R-serial to 1987. Pls. fill me in here, have I totally misunderstood Rolex and the catalogues?

As far as I know: The 16610 was introduced in 1989, the 168000 was the transitional between 16800 and 16610. R-serial was introduced in 1989. From my info directly from Rolex Geneva the 168000 was in production between medio 1988 and early 1989. The first generation 16610 had pre-fix "R"...as the next had L...as in R...L...E...X...(no O-series).

My first 168000 was 9 mill complete with papers dating from Danish AD from 1988. My current is early R-serial, however without papers.

I quote from one of many subjects on the 16610 intro:

"in 1989, the Submariner Date received its last update, and became the reference 16610 (still in use as the current Submariner Date in 2005). "

From http://www.vintagesubmariner.com/

"By 1989 the present model, the ref. no. 16610 replaced the 16800."
From http://home20.inet.tele.dk/rolex/gb_..._5513_supp.htm

"In 1989, the current 16610 was introduced".
From http://www.bernardwatch.com/content/rolex/models.cfm

"1989: Die Rolex Submariner (Ref. 16610) wird mit einer einseitig rastenden Drehlünette ausgestattet."
From http://www.rruegger.ch/dive_watch_history.htm

"Le modèle actuel 16610 fait son apparition en 1989 avec le calibre 3135."
From www.lacotesdemontres.com

But, again, as somebody mentioned...it´s older Rolex we´re talking about and errors may occur. However, we´re not talking THAT old.