Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31589 in Watches

Customer Reviews

A watch that will change your view of watches
A sweet diving watch that is designed as a tool watch. I would personally never wear this watch while scuba diving because my dive computer tells time fine and costs a lot less. But you CAN dive in this watch and even do saturation diving and some guys do. These are classic, tough, gorgeous watches.

They often make a big impact on people who get them. A Sea Dweller is much more than the sum of its parts, but to start with, here is my view of the parts.

-- it is very solid and somewhat heavy. At 40mm across, I find it not too heavy -- unlike some beefy Omegas one could name

-- the oyster case is little changed since it was pioneered by Rolex for the first waterproof watches in 1926. This one is built like a tank and is milled from a solid block of ridiculously expensive 904L stainless steel.

-- the sapphire crystal is the thickest I have ever seen on a watch. You will not break it with anything short of a hammer. Note that there is no cyclops magnifier for reading the date like you find on most Rolexes.

-- the dial is a work of art and one of the most copied in history. You can read it without your glasses and it glows nicely in the dark.

-- great bezel that is useful even above water. No play and a positive click (counterclockwise only, so that bumping the bezel while diving makes you think you have spent MORE time underwater, not less -- so you spend too much time decompressing, not too little).

-- the bracelet is over-engineered (the links are bigger than the standard Submariners, even if some sites say otherwise). It is not a hair-grabber. The clasp has an extension to make the watch easy to fit over a wet suit (this thing really is made for diving). Unfortunately this extension is a flimsy bit of tin that has no place on an otherwise magnificent watch (new watches come with a spare).

-- You can wear it anywhere with anything from a business suit to a wet suit and it looks great. Rolex has changed this watch very little in 30+ years so it is often thought of as a "been there, done that" Rolex.

The watch that conveys a sense of adventure and a sense of humor. That would be the unobtrusive "helium escape valve" at 9 o'clock. This valve makes sure that the next time you are ascending in your a Deep Submergence Vehicle from 4000 feet, the compressed helium that has snuck into your watch has a way to get out without damaging the works or blowing the crystal off. I know I sleep a lot better with THAT problem out of the way! (Note that all divers for COMEX, the prestigious French deep sea research and operations company wear Sea Dwellers. These guys work in very fancy submersibles and breathe helium at depths far beyond the reach of free divers. The record for Scuba is about 1,000 feet, so the watch will withstand any open water diving just fine even if many of us would rather beat up something that costs a bit less while diving.)

The only downside to the watch is, of course, the price. You can easily save $1k on the auction site that dare not speak its name and if you bottom feed a little you cans save more. I grabbed one there with the stickers still on it for $3k. Or search Grovana for a decent quality Swiss diver's watch modeled after the Sea Dweller for about 10% of the price. You can also get high quality Swiss Rolex replicas for about $900 but the karma is compromised and you cannot dive in them. Some of these are amazingly good copies however and only your jeweler will know for sure...

Sea-dweller owners can be a bit fanatic about this watch -- we are a rowdy sub-species of Rolex owners. I had a dozen nicely restored vintage watches. I confess that I sold three of them to buy a Sea Dweller and would sell most of the others before I let this one go.

Rolex Seadweller
This is an amazing watch. I have had it for over 3 years now, wearing it everyday, and it still looks new. It is built like a tank, thicker and heavier than the submariner. It is a very versatile watch with classic Rolex elements. I put it on and don't worry what the environment has in store - I know this watch will handle it.

All others can't compare
The best dive watch that a serious watch lover or scuba diver can own. Solid, clean looking and classy. I've used mine on deep dives with no problems whatsoever other than a corroded spring pin from always forgetting to rinse it well with fresh water after diving. oops. What first drew me to this watch is that it doesn't have that ugly magnifying glass window over the date like other Rolex watches have. It keeps the lines of the watch clean. If you are ever looking for the pinnacle of diver watches, you've found it in the sea-dweller.