{"id":17951,"date":"2021-05-18T12:31:06","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T16:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rubberb.com\/blog\/?p=17951"},"modified":"2023-01-04T11:20:17","modified_gmt":"2023-01-04T16:20:17","slug":"history-of-the-rolex-sea-dweller-past-and-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rubberb.com\/blog\/history-of-the-rolex-sea-dweller-past-and-present\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubber B Presents: A Brief Guide to the History of the Rolex Sea-Dweller, Past and Present"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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As one of the leading producers of custom rubber watch straps, Rubber B is continually driven by our unending passion for the world of horology. We believe that the world of watch collecting is an exciting and educational one, and we strive to make it more inclusive and transparent to everyone by creating an educational forum on the topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oftentimes, this idea takes the form of blog posts, and we love using this blog to help educate people on the wonderful world of watchmaking. That can include posts on a wide variety of topics, including closely learning more about a specific timepiece, focusing on a specific moment or person that is important in watchmaking history, or learning more about how watches are made, and how they work, on a technical level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Today, we are going to be focusing on the Rolex Sea-Dweller and looking at this timepiece from a variety of different angles. To begin with, we will focus on the history of the Rolex-Sea Dweller and why the watch was constructed in the first place. We will then focus on the technical aspects and design style of the Rolex Sea-Dweller 126600, which is the most current iteration of this timepiece. Finally, we will conclude with some interesting information about what the rarest Rolex Sea-Dweller in the world is.<\/p>\n\n\n

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What is the History of the Rolex Sea-Dweller?<\/h3>\n
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To fully understand the history of the Rolex Sea-Dweller, you actually have to go a little bit further back in time and look at an even older timepiece \u2013 the Rolex Submariner. The Submariner was arguably the world\u2019s first dive watch. However, in the 1960\u2019s, as scuba diving became more commercialized and divers were able to reach deeper depths, they began to realize that there was a serious problem with their watches.<\/p>\n

An important moment in watchmaking history occurred in 1960, when Lieutenant Don Walsh and an engineer named Jacques Piccard were the first to explore the Mariana Trench. They did so using an experimental diving vehicle named the Trieste. A specially made Rolex Deep Sea Special watch had been affixed to the exterior of that vehicle. Remarkably enough, the timepiece managed to emerge from the excursion in perfect working order. The success of this project would only further embolden Rolex to experiment further.
Unfortunately, the deeper a person dives, the more intense the pressure gets from the naturally occurring combination of nitrogen and helium that is found in the ocean. When divers began to surface and decompress from those gases, the pressure from them would blow the crystals clean off of the watches and damage the machinery from the inside out.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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In other words, it wasn\u2019t the pressure of diving that would damage these timepieces, but rather decompressing from the dive. This stands to reason, because as any experienced diver can tell you, \u201cthe bends\u201d (which is the informal name for decompression sickness) can actually be fatal to humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1967, a group of French commercial divers working for the company Comex came to Rolex and made them aware that their Rolex Submariner watches were no longer able to survive the excursions they were being taken on.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And because Rolex is the kind of company that constantly feels the need to tackle a challenge whenever they become aware of them, they saw an opportunity to craft a dive watch that could safely decompress after a successful dive – and thus, the Rolex Sea-Dweller was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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VulChromatic Rubber B Strap for Rolex Deepsea<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
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How Did Rolex Accomplish This Challenge?<\/h3>\n
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One of the notable aspects of Rolex\u2019s quiet genius is the fact that, at their core, they offer simple solutions to complicated problems. In this case, Rolex correctly realized that this issue was one of pressurization. If they were able to design a watch that was able to not take on an excess amount of pressurized gasses, it would be able to survive decompression.<\/p>\n

Their solution to this was simple and elegant. They installed a release valve on the side of the watch that would allow a diver to release the pressure once they had safely decompressed. And in 1967, Rolex released a specially branded version of the Rolex Submariner, the 5513, that had the pressure valve installed on the side and the Comex logo engraved on the back.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Because these watches spent so much time underwater, people started giving them the informal nickname \u201cSea-Dweller,\u201d and Rolex would later adopt that nickname for the entire product line of modified watches. These early watches are now prized among collectors and became the prototype for the Rolex Sea-Dweller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This lead to the Rolex Sea-Dweller becoming one of the most popular dive watches in the world, and the production of its most current iteration, the Rolex Sea-Dweller 126600.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What Was the First Rolex Sea-Dweller Watch Produced?<\/h3>\n
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In 1967, the Model 1665, or the Double Red Sea-Dweller, was released to the general public. The timepiece was called the \u201cdouble red\u201d because of the two lines of double red text on the bottom of the dial. This is notable because later iterations of the watch only had one line of red text on the bottom, and as such, these watches have also become something of a collector\u2019s item as well.<\/p>\n

Because the Rolex Sea-Dweller was directly inspired by the Rolex Submariner, it stands to reason that the first iteration of the watch had a lot in common with its direct predecessor. The Rolex 1665 has a date display on the right side of the dial, and it does not have the cyclops glass over the date window that the Submariner had.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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The reason for this is that the cyclops glass was glued on under the dial and, like many other components of previous dive watches, would come loose and be blown out under the pressures of deep-sea exploration. Rolex decided that the best way to solve this problem would be simply not to include the piece at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also multiple versions of the dial that have different variations on the text at the bottom, and the original versions of the first Rolex Sea-Dweller are now known as Mark 0 through 4. Rolex would later issue several replacement dials for these watches, which are known as Mark 5 through 7. It should be noted that the older the Mark number is, the more valuable the watch is to collectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What Did Rolex Do With the Sea-Dweller Product Line After the Release of the First Model?<\/h3>\n
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Because of the success, they experienced with the first iteration of the Sea-Dweller, Rolex decided to continue on with the product line. There was a second iteration of the Rolex 1665, and this second version came to be known among collectors as the \u201cGreat White\u201d version. While this nickname again had to do with the text on the bottom of the dial, the connotation with one of the ocean\u2019s most apex predators certainly doesn\u2019t hurt either.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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