The intention of this post is to archive, in one place, all available information about the Rolex Deep Sea Sea-Dweller and to provide a single source for all comparisons to past, present, and future reps.
I often see posts made by newer members looking for good information on the Deep Sea. I thought this was odd as there is a Deep Sea pinned in the Rolex forum and Thinkbachs had posted a tremendously useful mega-post with some images he came across on the web of an actual tear down of a genuine Deep Sea along with comparisons of many of the offerings of Trusted Dealers and then some. Recently I tried to locate Thinkbachs post to provide a link for someone and when I finally located his post I was taken aback to see all his great info and pictures deleted! I did have images of the tear down archived but I tried to contact Thinkbachs (TB) to see if he would reconsider resubmitting the info and posts and or to get permission to use his archived images. Currently he can not be reached via PM so rather than use his images with out his permission I went online and located the original source of the images. It turns out those images were taken from a German watch forum and I was able to track down the original posts on that forum. There were quite a few more images located there than were originally posted on the site TB originally ran across. This information is way too valuable to not have shared and posted here at RWI. Though it is somewhat of a mystery why he felt compelled to remove all his posts I still extend great thanks to Thinkbachs for sharing the info originally and I am included all the original images of the tear down including the ones not originally posted plus all the Rolex documents I have on the Deep Sea. This will comprise part one of this archive. Part two will be a comparison of various current models against the genuine DSSD and comparisons to each other and my intention is to have part two finished sometime this weekend.
If anyone wants to contribute information to this endeavor feel free to contact me and I will include it in the original post. Otherwise please add your information as we go along.
Part One
First lets take a look at a genuine Rolex Deep Sea.
Special Note: Take a good look at the pearl (luminous dot). This is one of the loudest tells on all the existing reps. None of the rep manufacturers have got this right. The Epoxy mod will make the pearl better, and rebuilding the pearl and coating the lume with epoxy makes it better still. However I have come up with a fix on this which I posted elsewhere on a custom 116610LN build that is so close to gen no one will be able to tell on the wrist..
I have also modded a BK DSSD and addressed the pearl issue on it too and I will cover this in more detail in Part Two. For now suffices that you note that the genuine pearl is made of two parts, an 18kt white gold base (cup) with a post that extends through ceramic bezel insert. The lens is sapphire and is cupped on the back side to hold the blue super-luminova which Rolex calls chromalight. This lens is then fitted down into the cup or base. The sapphire lens adds a certain depth to the pearl and has a surface shine like no other material.
This is a non-serviceable part which means if you knock it out or damage the pearl on the gen it costs $1500 to replace the bezel to fix it.
I find it remarkable how close to gen most of the DSSD reps are out of the box. Most of the issues surround the pearl and or the ceramic bezel insert.
Ready to tear one down and see how it is constructed?
The case back is made of two pieces. A steel retaining ring that screws to the case and a smooth conical titanium alloy case back.
The threaded tightening ring for the case back:
Titanium alloy case back:
The titanium case back gets it shape for two reasons. First the shape allows it to clear the rotor on the movement. The second reason is due to clever engineering. The retainer screws down and presses the case back against the case but you can see the gasket is at the outer edge of the case back. As the watch experiences greater depth the added pressure forces the case back against the case creating ever greater sealing and the gasket pushes outward against a retainer in the case further increasing the seal as load increases. All this force is redirected down and outward to where the gasket meets the case but around the movement.
This is a familiar site for anyone who has disassembled a rep DSSD. Aside from the white gasket which isn't present in the reps, the rest looks exactly the same.
Note the dial above has a matte finish while dial below has a gloss finish. The information I have is that both are correct and later versions are now coming with a matte dial whereas the original versions 2008-2010 had a gloss dial. There was a big brouhaha about this sometime ago here on RWI where it was argued that matte dials were not correct. I have mentioned this before many times but Rolex like any manufacturer executes production changes and has more than one supplier for parts so arguing what is correct or incorrect gets a little silly at some point. Just because you may have held or owned or seen a Rolex before doesn't mean you have seen them all. The info I have on the 16610LV which has had seven known different dial versions is now up to eight different dial versions! And all of them are confirmed genuine. So for the perpetually anal it is a good idea to bear this in mind, if for no other reason than maintaining ones sanity. :lolcina:
The heart of the Rolex Deepsea: the venerable 3135 movement.
The design of the 120 click bezel having teeth placed on the bottom is how most Rolex reps are constructed (noob factory 16610, 116610, 116660).
The click plunger below at 6 o'clock is very similar to how the rep is constructed. The main difference is how the bezel rides around and is attached to the case. on the gen it uses three bearings and one click plunger plus a retainer. On the reps there is a wire retainer in a groove on teh inside of the bezel which mates with an adjacent groove in the outside of the rehaut. This snaps into place when the bezel is pressed down but is near impossible to remove once in place. It is possible to remove it however most attempts will leave you frustrated and usually holding a bent bezel...or worse.
The spring loaded ball bearings that and the click plunger that the gen bezel glides around on. These simply fit down into four little holes drilled into the case.
Note the holes for the bearings and the separate ring lock. The noob factory reps come with the ring lock as part of the case.
The barcode below is printed on the clear protective sticker, not on the actual case.
The ring lock on the Deepsea does have the barcode printed on its outer edge. I have often wondered why this is but my guess is that it is due in part to the ring lock being the part of this watch that contains the serial number. So I guess one could say the ring lock IS the case. The 116660 is the first Rolex I know of not to have the serial number between the lugs at 6 o'clock. It still has the model number between the lugs at 12 o'clock. It seems this may be the first Rolex to not have a serial number on the case itself which begs the question is it possible to even order a replacement Deepsea mid case? A service case from Rolex usually comes with a 4,44X,XXX or now a 4,7XX,XXX serial. I wonder if a replacement ring lock is even available... :thinking:
Hole below in the ring lock allows the stem to pass through.
Below the crystal inside the gasket pressed into the retainer sitting on top of the ring lock. The special alloy ring lock resists the clamping pressure of the crystal above and the case back below at depth. It also reinforces the case from lateral compression and being circular redirects compression (think an arch here) so the movement isn't crushed. This really is state of the art design, no dive watch can go as deep.
Inside view of the HEV (Helium Escape Valve).
That is one serious assembley...
The ginormously huge crystal and the ceramic bezel insert:
I mentioned the crystal is ginormously huge right?
Further up in the post I mentioned how the case back seals to the case and it is covered further down in the technical documents. You can see the groove in the edge of the case back where the rubber o-ring sets in the image directly above. This is pressed into the case against a retaining ring (looks to be a white colored gasket similar to a crystal gasket) making the back water tight. The bulk of the flat area facing up on the case back doesn't make contact with the case as it does in most reps, it actually presses against the inner ring lock (compression ring). The force of pressure from depth is directed from the sides of the case into the ring lock reinforcing the case but the real weakness to any dive watch is the crushing force pressing against the crystal from above and the case back from below which is directed directly into the ring lock and not into the case, which I find fascinating. If you have ever seen pictures of a Rolex oyster case that has been tested to failure you would have been surprised to learn that water didn't enter the case. Instead what happened (in the case of the older sea-dweller or submariner with an acrylic crystal) the case back caved in as did the crystal squeezing and crushing the movement (image below). Even though the movement in the Deepsea is locked into the ring lock via two screws as is the case in other Rolex watches and is seated to the underside of the rehaut or flange built into the ring lock the movement, it appears it more or less floats inside this cocoon, completely protected and isolated from the enormous pressures present at it's serviceable depth range. In fact it is tested to 20% over the depth rating to insure it can survive the maximum rating of 4000 meters.
The Rolex 116660 Sea-dweller Deepsea in all its disassembled glory:
Now that you have seen a DeepSea taken apart, are you ready to get into the gory details?
Below are the Rolex tech documents on the construction of the DeepSea. Everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask...
Comparison of the 116660 DeepSea & it's predecessor the 16600 Sea-dweller.
DeepSea construction:
How the Ring Lock System and HEV function:
The construction of the pearl and bezel assembly:
Bracelet:
Ok, that is it for now. It's 5AM and I need some sleep. In Part Two I will address a few mods (including the greatest pearl mod ever) and start the comparisons of the various rep offerings and how they compare to each other, and how they stand up against the genuine DeepSea.
Sept 30, 2011 Update:
I have a whole other disassembly of a DeepSea to post which I will do in just a minute. I was going to just add it on but it will make more sense to interweave it above and just edit text accordingly. Managing this much info and presenting it in a coherent format is proving to be a challenge. Apologies in advance for mixing new info in with the old but I think in the end it will make it easier to absorb.
Thanks - DA
