sherrylala » Rolex Sea Dweller – Rolex’s New Deep Diving Leviathan

Rolex Sea Dweller – Rolex’s New Deep Diving Leviathan

In the realm of luxury watches industry, Rolex has a distinct identity. rolex watches are considered as a symbol of supreme craftsmanship with beyond comparison quality. They are a reflection of wealth as well as prestige. Rolex faddists are known as outstanding people with distinguish fashion sense and style.

While the 2008 Baselworld buzz was swirling, I clacked out a blog that covered my views on the new rolex sea dweller - Rolex’s new deep diving leviathan. While I was impressed from an overall conceptual standpoint, I found myself less than enamored with all the extra text on the dial, not to mention the garish “Original Gas Escape Valve” and “Ring Lock System” engravings which stood out like rat droppings on granulated white sugar.

Over the previous weekend, I was fortunate to have an opportunity to handle the new Rolex bad boy, and I must say that against my expectations–the watch completely won me over. Sure, I would STILL prefer the blah-blah-blah on the dial to be less than it is, but in person, it is far less obtrusive than Rolex press release images indicate. All of the jib-jab seemed to just fade into the background when I held the surprisingly well balanced 43mm case in my hand, which thanks to the titanium caseback makes the watch considerably lighter than you might think–in fact, the smaller Oyster Perpetual Milgauss felt more massive, to my recollection (perhaps due to the secondary anti-magnetic caseback).

The Rolex Deepsea watch’s matte dial is really excellent, and takes you right back to the halcyon days when Rolex sport watches had dials that didn’t shine like a freshly waxed grand piano. While the gloss dials are fancy and nicely executed, nothing says “sport” like a matte dial; Rolex is back to their roots with this one. The domed sapphire crystal looks great as well, recalling some of the coveted early Sea Dweller references; it provides some neat optical effects as well, as you turn it from side to side.

So, naturally, I had to slip the Deepsea watch on my wrist–at 43mm, it surely would be far too big, I reasoned. Again, a delightful (or dreadful, from a monetary standpoint) surprise–the Rolex Deepsea looked great on my small wrist, the excellent new Oyster bracelet balancing the considerable height very well. The much talked about ratcheted clasp is the essence of precision-cool, and really takes Rolex bracelets to a whole new level (a very good thing, after years of overly simple bracelet craftsmanship).

So, well done Rolex . You’ve managed to capture my attention, and several days later I’m still thinking about this watch. That’s a bad sign…a very bad sign!