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Rolex’s first foray into producing professional diver’s watches began in the 1950s with the release of the Submariner. While they weren’t the first company to develop a diver’s watch for commercial production, Rolex is, arguably, the most iconic and recognizable brand in the industry.
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The Submariner evolved from a 100-meter depth rating. Eventually, settling on 300 meters of water resistance. While this amount of waterproofness is certainly enough to venture far below the surface of the sea, there was still room for improvement, and the Sea-Dweller was born.
One challenge faced while performing deep saturation dives was the accumulation of helium gas within the case, which threatened the watch’s integrity during decompression because it caused the crystal to dislodge entirely from the case itself.
To combat this issue, the Helium Escape Valve was developed. This mechanism activates when the pressure inside the case reaches a certain level, allowing the helium gas that accumulates inside to vent properly, keeping the crystal intact and protecting the movement inside.
This mechanism debuted alongside the Sea-Dweller in 1967 and is located at the 9 o’clock position on the case. Aside from the Helium Escape Valve, the Sea-Dweller very closely resembles the Submariner with a similar 60-minute diver’s bezel and luminous hour markers on the dial.
The series debuted with ref. 1665, featuring water resistance up to 2,000 feet. The bezel featured a bi-directional mounting and a domed acrylic crystal, both of which were common on dive watches produced during the 1960s.
Early editions featured two lines of red text on the dial reading “Sea-Dweller” and “Submariner 2000.” However, by the late 1970s, this font was replaced by all-white text, and the Submariner name was dropped. Examples featuring red text on the dial are lovingly referred to as “Double Red” Sea-Dwellers, while those featuring all-white text on the dial have since earned the moniker “Great White.”
Reference 1665 was replaced by the Sea-Dweller 16660 in the late 1970s. Its feature set includes the same 40mm case size, only now the crystal is made from scratch-resistant sapphire, and the crown offers water resistance up to 4,000 feet. Additionally, the bezel is uni-directional, offering a much more reliable reading than the bi-directional variety used on reference 1665.
The movement also received an upgrade via calibre 3035, which beats at a higher frequency and offers the convenience of a Quickset function. However, by the late 1980s, Rolex made another improvement to the movement via ref. 16600 featuring the calibre 3135.
Reference 16600 also marked the transition of the Sea-Dweller from 316L steel to 904L steel, a much more resilient metal alloy. Aside from these updates, reference 16600 very much resembles its predecessor ref. 16660. In 2009, reference 16600 was discontinued entirely and was not immediately replaced by another Sea-Dweller.
While it seemed that the Sea-Dweller was retired for good, Rolex resurrected it in 2014 via reference 116600, complete with a ceramic bezel, integration to the “Super Case” seen on early 6-digit Rolex watches, and Maxi dial topped with Chromalight lume. The case remained 40mm in diameter, and the movement beating inside the case was still the cal. 3135.
The 116600 Sea-Dweller only remained in production for three years before it was replaced in 2017 by ref. 126600, just in time to celebrate the series’ 50th anniversary. With this new model came a larger 43mm case and integration to the brand-new cal. 3235 Perpetual movement. Additionally, a Cyclops magnifier was added to the crystal for the very first time in Sea-Dweller history. The depth rating also remained the same at 4,000 feet.
The next major milestone in the Sea-Dweller collection came in 2019 when the brand released the first two-tone option via reference 126603. Aside from the use of Rolex’s patented “Yellow Rolesor” finish combining steel with 18k yellow gold, reference 126603 remained similar in design as its all-steel counterpart.
Both the two-tone ref. 126603 and Oystersteel ref. 126600 remain in production today, retailing for $16,600 and $11,700, respectively.