Lot 273

Rolex

Sea-Dweller

A diver's attractive wristwatch with date, sold on July 4th, 1996 - with original box, original punched certificate, operating instructions, booklet, calendar and Rolex service guarantee card dated 2016

Sold

The Rolex Sea-Dweller was first introduced in 1967 and considered to be an updated version of the Rolex Submariner. The most important enhancements were the greatly increased water-resistance and the helium valve on the side of the case; the latter was developed primarily for professional divers in great depths to ensure that the ingress of helium was able to escape quickly during ascent. Without this valve, the divers regularly experienced exploding crystals.
Due to its remarkable success, the Sea-Dweller was updated continuously, however, it never changed its form. The first series of the Sea-Dweller reference 1665 was inscribed in red with "Sea-Dweller, Submariner 2000". The next generation launching in the mid 1970s simply bore the words "Sea-Dweller" in white; all of the watches were calibrated for a depth of up to 2,000 ft/610 m. In 1980 reference 1665 was replaced by reference 16660; the "Triple Six" featured a date quick-setting function, a sapphire crystal and the improved, double escape valve; it was classified for a depth up to 2,000 ft/610 m. This was followed by the fast-beating reference 16600 in the mid 1990s fitted with calibre 3135 calibrated to a depth of 4000ft/1220m, which was produced until 2008.