RINGLOCK SYSTEM: The Sea-Dweller DEEPSEA is equipped with a RINGLOCK SYSTEM, a new case architecture patented by Rolex, which allows the watch to withstand a colossal 2.98 metric tones of water pressure.

TITANIUM/STEEL ALLOY CASE BACK: The case back is made of a titanium/steel alloy, an extremely resistant stainless material.  It is held in place against the high-performance ring by means of a 904L-steel ring-lock system.

GLIDELOCK Clasp: The new GLIDELOCK clasp allows for very fine adjustments to the bracelet length, up to 18mm by increments of 1.8mm, without removing the watch.

Luminescence: The zero marker of the graduated bezel and the gold indices and hands of the dial are visible longer at night or in the depths of the ocean thanks to a new luminescent material that emits a blue glow.

Unidirectional Rotatable Bezel: The Sea-Dweller DEEPSEA has a unidirectional rotatable bezel with a 60-minute graduated black CERACHROM disc that allows the diver to precisely track dive times.

3135 Movement: The Sea-Dweller DEEPSEA is equipped with a 3135 movement, known for its precision, reliability and robustness; it also features a PARACHROM hairspring with high resistance to shocks and magnetic fields.

Helium Valve: The helium valve is made of high-performance stainless steel. This crucial safety feature allows gases that have entered the watch during deep-water dives to escape during the diver's return to the surface.

Triplock Winding Crown: The Triplock winding crown screws down like a nautical hatch and incorporates three separate gaskets to seal out water and foreign matter.

Rigorous Testing: Each Sea-Dweller DEEPSEA must pass Rolex's rigorous water resistance tests. To this end, special equipment has been developed with the help of COMEX (COmpagnie Maritime d'EXpertise), the world-renowned French company specializing in underwater engineering and hyperbaric technologies.

I really admire Rolex for making this watch.  There is more technology in this watch than in most ‘complicated’ watches.  Surely, its functions are not complicated, but its main trick is this mechanical time-ticking beast can dive 20 times deeper than any human has ever gone; that is an astonishing claim and extreme!  Most of us heard that Rolex invented the diver’s watch with the Submariner, and then the professional diver’s watch with the Sea-Dweller & its COMEX cousins, and they went all out to maintain their position as the ‘King of the Hill’ in the diving watch business.  Surely, there have been watches capable of 4,000m dives before, but they fought off the pressure by filling their cases with incompressible liquids, which meant that the watches had to be quartz powered.  A mechanical watch would then need to use two utterly different technologies.

Not wanting to use quartz movements, Rolex designed a completely new method of case construction; the ‘Ring Lock’ system, this involves a 2-part construction; the outer case that we can see & an inner one, which is hidden. The inner case is a circular section containing the movement, topped by the sapphire glass and with a titanium back; all the pressure is applied to the inner case with the outer case merely acting as a carrier for the inner one & an attachment point for the bracelet.  The keys to this system working are two-fold; first, the sapphire crystal is domed rather than the flat one we are used to see on Rolexes; this means that under pressure the center will be forced down and as it does this, it will flatten slightly and create an even tighter seal at the edges.  The other part is the titanium/steel alloy caseback, titanium is used there to add lightness, but also because it is much more flexible than steel, whilst being just as strong.  So, when the pressure hits, it flexes slightly inward and once again, the pressure forces it tighter on to its seals.

It isn’t just the technology used in building the case that is new, there was no testing equipment capable of checking whether the watch was performing to the specification; this was where COMEX came in, for the Marseille diving technology company developed two types of pressure testing equipment for this watch, large scale ones used in Geneva for production line testing and smaller ones for the Service Centres.  Even the case opening/closing tools have had to be redesigned, because although the caseback uses the classic Rolex milling, the current model case opening tools could not exert enough pressure needed to seal the watch correctly.

Actually the Rolex DEEPSEA is much more water-resistant than advertised.  Rolex tested it to 4,900 m (16,000 ft).  I have a great respect and admiration for Rolex to the fact that they would go to such extremes in developing a watch which might not be a big seller and certainly not for everyone, in order to recapture their rightful throne in the diver’s watch kingdom.  I am overwhelmed by the new bracelet, which is considered to be, not only the best one Rolex has ever made, but also one of the best ones anyone could ever touch!  Now you won't get cheap-looking stamped sheet metal like with the good old Submariner anymore.

Just finished reading a test on the DEEPSEA in a German watch magazine and it got a 6/6 quote, with the only negative point being that it's hard to get (maybe in Germany)! 

There you have it!  I was so impressed and I kept adding words to make this long!  With a watch this extreme, you can't avoid having very strong feelings, positive or negative, about it!  Mine is POSITIVE and AWESTRUCK, and I think this would become a collector's item, especially for the first ever year Rolex issued the watch (2008), as we have seen in almost all Rolex sports models before, now becoming very precious collectors' items.  Imagine if you could find a Submariner or Sea-Dweller in its first-issued-year model in mint original condition complete with boxes and papers, wow!  Remember, I have no association with Rolex, and they haven't paid me a dime to do ads for them!

Some people have said who cares and what a waste and why Rolex went through what they did to make the Deep Sea!  But may I remind as to why some of us collect luxury mechanical watches, each with different reasons and perhaps some very personal, but what went into making these watches stirred our interests and yearning to want to own and hold them dearly, at least for a while as we course through life.