Marcello Pisani (respected Italian collector) wrote,

"I HAVE PERSONALLY CHECKED AT GENEVA A SD WITH CASE NUMBER AROUND 1.71X.XXX, AND ROLEX CONFIRMED THAT IT WAS SOLD IN 1967. SAME VERY EARLY WATCHES HAD THE OUTSIDE OF THE BACK SIGNED " GAS ESCAPE VALVE PATENT PENDING", THAT MEANS THAT THE PATENT WAS ALREADY ASKED BUT NOT STILL OBTAINED. I HAVE ALSO SEEN A "SINGLE RED" SD WITH DEPTH SIGNED "1650 FT=500 M." (IN CAPITAL LETTERS INSTEAD OF SMALL), BUT THERE IS NO OFFICIAL RECORD OF THIS DIAL, SO I HAVE MANY DOUBTS ABOUT IT."

Mr. Pisani has found reasons to believe that "pre-Sea-Dwellers" were supplied to companies such as COMEX and not handed out to official dealers... "There also seems to be a rare version around with only the name SEA-DWELLER printed in red and not like the later versions which says SEA-DWELLER SUBMARINER 2000...".

Since the early publication of this webpage, several notable collectors have seen this Sea Dweller up close. Three noted UK Collector/Dealers have all emailed me saying that they have examined the watch and believe it to be 100% authentic and original.


CONCLUSIONS

There is a fair amount of documentation showing that Rolex first produced "double red" Sea Dweller / Submariner 2000's during the fourth quarter of 1967 and into 1968. There is little to no evidence that any Sea Dweller was manufactured prior to 1967, though. If this is indeed true, it would be logical to conclude that the predecessor (500M-1650FT dial) would have been made less than one year since the only references found thus far indicate a manufacture date of 1967.

The big question - Why are there so few examples of the 500M-1650FT dial?

One feasible idea was presented in a recent conversation a friend of mine had with one of the principals of Italy's Siapem corporation. Siapem is in the business of oil & gas pipeline contracts. They have used COMEX as one of their dive contractors in the past.

This gentleman reminded my friend that Rolex serviced the early Sea Dwellers every six months -- always overhauling and upgrading them to the latest standards of Rolex excellence.

This meant new casebacks, dials, hands -- even movements. [Some of the noted experts of Rolex history have mentioned this fact on watch forums and other venues].

One conclusion that could be drawn from these facts is that possibly the few remaining 1650FT dialed pieces were never "upgraded". I was told that Dr. Brauer was a man who always purchased the best, "but didn't always have things serviced like he should". It is possible that Rolex gave Dr. Brauer this Sea Dweller for testing (or maybe he purchased it), but he never returned it for servicing. Thus his watch was never "upgraded" -- making it very rare and totally original. We don't know the facts, but it does make sense.

The Saipem official also stated that Rolex was not above doing special favours for certain divers -- possibly even keeping an "old" dial on a watch when servicing it. This fact was confirmed by a 25 year veteran of the Australian Clearance Divers Group. For those who are unfamiliar with Clearance Divers, they are Australia's equivalent of the US Navy Seals. The Major, as I'll call him, confirmed that Rolex did indeed do special favours for top notch divers who offered explicit feedback to the company for product development and testing. Even if Dr. Brauer had his watch serviced, could the originality of this timepiece have been the result of a "special favour" from Rolex? Maybe. After all, Dr. Brauer was a forerunner in the world of SCUBA and deep sea diving.


DETAILS OF THE "SINGLE RED" SEA DWELLER

Some enthusiasts call this piece the "single red" Sea Dweller due to the fact that only the "Sea Dweller" name is printed in red. In contrast, the "double red" Sea Dwellers have both "Sea Dweller" and "Submariner 2000" printed in red letters.

Inside the Sea-Dwellers case back, showing model number, ‘1665‘, and date of production ‘IV 67‘.