Rolex Sea Dweller Watches

Featured Rolex Sea Dweller

• Unworn
• Black Dial with Date
• Stainless Steel Case
• Stainless Steel Bracelet
• Gas Escape Valve
• Chronometer
• Waterproof to 1220m/4000ft
• Automatic Movement
• Sapphire Crystal Glass
• Unidirectional Rotating Bezel

I have previously sold watches to the Swiss Watch co but this was my first purchase. My used Rolex Sea Dweller was practically brand new and i'm happy with the purchase.

Matt Hill

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The Rolex Sea-Dweller

The Rolex Sea-Dweller is an exceptional sports watch first launched in 1967 and specially designed for use in saturation diving. While older varieties of the Rolex Sea Dweller had a depth rating of 2000 feet, currently available models are rated up to 4000 feet, and now its newest model introduced at the Basel Fair in 2008 offering a staggering 12,800 feet. Although Rolex Submariner is also a diver's watch, it wasn’t built for deep saturation diving and cannot withstand nearly the same pressure as that of the Sea-Dweller.

History behind its Creation

Rolex discovered the need to create something even more sophisticated than the Submariner when, during the 1960s, COMEX--a French commercial diving company--reported a technical problem that its divers faced with the model 5513 Rolex Submariner. It was caused due to the de-compression chambers where the watch literally exploded from its case. This occurred after exposure to long periods of extreme pressure at great depths, whereby helium particles would penetrate the watch's crystal and seal but were unable to escape when the diver went through the decompression chambers.

Rolex quickly realized that while Submariners were awesome performers even at excessive amounts of pressure from outside, they actually failed due to the inner pressure created on deep dives. As a quick and innovative solution, Rolex fitted a one-way gas escape valve on one side of the case, positioned the opposite side to the crown in the special Submariner 5513 models.

As these were specially issued to the COMEX divers, some of these models even bore the “COMEX” logo, these models now are highly desirable by collectors as they were produced in lower numbers than that of other Rolex sports watches and in some cases only to the Comex dive teams. The problem with this solution was that after every six months, the watches needed to be sent in for maintenance.

Later in 1967, Rolex brought out another model: 5514. These were also specially fitted Submariners. But this time, they bore not only the “COMEX” logo on the dial and also the COMEX identification numbers on the back.

The commitment of Rolex to deliver the best encouraged it to come out with a new, special line of watches which would be meant for only harsher conditions at greater diving depths, leading to the inception of the Rolex Sea-Dweller.

There have been a few variants of Sea-Dweller produced by Rolex, from the Comex to the converted double red Sea-Dweller, with various case back engravings and case sizes. At various times the water resistance has differed from that of 660ft ,1650ft, 2000ft 4000ft to that of the deep sea’s 12800ft showing Rolex’s commitment to taking there watches to new depths of exploration.

Rolex Sea Dweller Model Numbers

1665, 16600, 16660, 116660