Reply With QuoteBoth look good.
Live and learn as they say
Whilst I'm banging out the pictures thought I'd show you my two Rollies side by side.
The 16660 Sea dweller came to me from a commercial diver who had literally worn it to destruction saturation diving. Its been down to 250m. It was before I knew anything about Rolex and I sent it for a service. Rolex UK decided it needed a new dial, and hands to match, and as I later learnt kindly devaluing it by £2000 for me.
Lesson learnt the hard way, but the quality of the restoration was impeccable:
Otherjohn
Both look good.
Live and learn as they say
Thanks,
It would be a tough choice if I had to get rid of one.
Otherjohn
Pace yourself John, you're going to run out of threads to create.
No way, plenty of watches and lots of stories to tell.
And of course plenty of time.....
Otherjohn
Strange question that I've been meaning to ask for years...
What modern watch is equal in quality to a Rolex of this age? Of course I understand it's a Rolex and not many come close to the cache Rolex has, but for example is a Steinhart or Squale Sub homage with an ETA equal in build quality to the pictured watches?
Gone fishing!!Originally Posted by James_
Nice pair, makes you wonder what Rolex do with all those old dials and hands, think I’ll need to visit the factory and do some dumpster diving round the back!
Both look excellent! On the bright side - you can wear the SD with impunity - knowing it will continue to give you years of service. It depends if you want a functional watch? Which would you deep diving? Both in theory are good to 200m or so.
Last edited by MartynJC (UK); 8th April 2020 at 08:31.
Great pictures.. Personally, I hadn't thought about putting the SD on a NATO, might give it a try.Whilst I'm banging out the pictures thought I'd show you my two Rollies side by side.
The 16660 Sea dweller came to me from a commercial diver who had literally worn it to destruction saturation diving. Its been down to 250m. It was before I knew anything about Rolex and I sent it for a service. Rolex UK decided it needed a new dial, and hands to match, and as I later learnt kindly devaluing it by £2000 for me.
Lesson learnt the hard way, but the quality of the restoration was impeccable:
Otherjohn
Special to have a Seadweller with provenance like that.
Don't know about Rolex but suspect some found their way out as the market for such items developed. An in house Rolex repairer working in a Northern jewellers used to give me old dials, hands and inserts when I dropped a watch of for service....
Similar story to this one. It was once a Matt dialled 16660 but received the full Rolex treatment of replacement dial, hands, crystal and case. The only original parts are the movement, case back and bracelet...
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Good work by the RSC - you now have a fully functional watch, fit for the purpose for which it was designed. Thanks for sharing.Similar story to this one. It was once a Matt dialled 16660 but received the full Rolex treatment of replacement dial, hands, crystal and case. The only original parts are the movement, case back and bracelet...
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The SD came on the black and white NATO and it suits it really well. The original bracelet was unusable after years of diving in salt water.
At the time (2013) I asked for old dial back as the watch had sentimental value. They offered me 'MY' dial back for £493!
I declined the offer on principle and have been kicking myself ever since!
Otherjohn
Never had a problem with mine in salt water, what made it unusable?
The SD is the ultimate tool watch as proven by my friend who chose to wear it deep diving despite being connected to computer controlled life support system.
On that basis it would me my first choice.
Otherjohn
I suspect that wouldn't happen now, I tried several resources to get the watch repaired but the sports watch parts are so highly controlled by Rolex. With hindsight I now know where I could have had the dial restored. And could have sent the watch to Rolex minus a dial?
The bracelet was hanging together by a tread due to erosion of metal on the links and clasp broken.
The crystal was heavily and deeply scratched from serious under water work routines.
The bezel was heavily battered and insert unrecognisable.
One of the dial index markers had come off was and floating around inside the case, this had dislodged a lot of lume that had got into the movement.
The crown was damaged from impact.
The bill from Rolex was £1342.
Wished I had taken some photos at the time to show the difference now.
Otherjohn
I think you will agree that Rolex work is a close to perfection as it gets?Similar story to this one. It was once a Matt dialled 16660 but received the full Rolex treatment of replacement dial, hands, crystal and case. The only original parts are the movement, case back and bracelet...
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Do you have a bracelet?
Otherjohn
Crikey, that's a lot of damage for a subsea watch, mine have never got that badly damaged!!!
Last edited by seadog1408; 8th April 2020 at 18:19.
The owner was a former COMEX diver and spent 35 years diving for living. He bought the SD in 1984 after swapping his 1665 Comex for an underwater camera!
He now knows that was a bum deal.
I'm sure seadog would have a greater appreciation of the wear and tear on a watch if he had similar underwater excursions :)
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