Rolex Sea-Dweller

The final and official version of the Rolex Sea-Dweller (reference 1665) was presented in 1971. The Sea-Dweller, which literally means "the abyss dweller", was designed according to the technical requirements of COMEX, a prominent French submarine operating company. Until then, COMEX operators were equipped with the Submariner 5513, but it had pressure-related problems during deep dives that could lead to the glass breaking. Rolex decided to fix this problem by creating a new model with a small valve on the left side of the case that lets helium escape during decompression. The Rolex Sea-Dweller 16660 is also known as the "Triple Six". The 16660 is the first Sea-Dweller to feature a Sapphire crystal instead of a Plexiglas crystal. Furthermore, this model is more water resistant than its predecessor and the bi-directional bezel has been replaced by a unidirectional bezel. There is a special version called " Spider Dial ". The reason for this is that over time, many small cracks develop on the dial, giving the impression of a spider's web. Rolex also provided COMEX with a batch of Sea-Dweller reference 16660 between 1980 and 1984. The first 50 models had a dial with "Pallettoni" markers and all the others had a dial with "Bicchierini" markers. The "Bicchierini" markers are recognizable by the metal surface that surrounds the markers. If there is no metallic surface, it is called "Pallettoni".