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Thread: Vintage diving helmet from 1970's Rolex 'At One With The Sea' window display.

  1. #1
    Master paneristi372's Avatar
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    Vintage diving helmet from 1970's Rolex 'At One With The Sea' window display.

    Picked this up this week on the well know auction site. Have been looking to get one for the display for a couple of year and then an actual Rolex POS display piece pops up so I figured it would be rude not to buy. I really quite like it.







    From an internet search this is what the original full display would have looked like.


  2. #2
    Master TKH's Avatar
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    That’s awesome mate...now i need one ...

  3. #3
    Craftsman
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    Love that!

  4. #4
    Master
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    That’s fantastic! Can’t wait to see what you add next.
    Enjoy

  5. #5
    Craftsman
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    Like that. Very cool.

  6. #6
    Master Christian's Avatar
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    Looks good. Can't imagine Rolex would ever go back to putting one of those in a window display...wouldn't look quite the same with a diamond encrusted ladies DJ in it!

  7. #7
    We seem to be living in an alternate universe where this kind of cool stuff - which must have been made in pretty small numbers - is easier to get than the watches they were (once) used to promote!!


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  8. #8
    Master
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    Doesn’t look like a POS to me. I like it!

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by David_D View Post
    Doesn’t look like a POS to me. I like it!
    Point Of Sale I think as opposed to the alternate meaning!


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  10. #10
    Master jukeboxs's Avatar
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    Very nice, and great find! You just need to find a Submariner now to go with it...

  11. #11
    Grand Master wileeeeeey's Avatar
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    That's really cool, what a find.

  12. #12
    Grand Master RustyBin5's Avatar
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    Very cool. Is it difficult to get the watch out or do you lift the whole helmet off rather than taking out through the face hole ?

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Christian View Post
    Looks good. Can't imagine Rolex would ever go back to putting one of those in a window display...wouldn't look quite the same with a diamond encrusted ladies DJ in it!
    PMSL

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  14. #14
    Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by RobDad View Post
    Point Of Sale I think as opposed to the alternate

    😳 I have a mind like a sewer! Apologies!

  15. #15
    Grand Master Neil.C's Avatar
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    I don't want to rain on your parade but I have seen so many of these helmets appear recently I am sure they are being faked.

    One chap I know in the US was "finding" lots of these at estate sales and auctioning them for big bucks on ebay. When I asked he wouldn't volunteer where he got them.

    I hope yours is real but there seems to have been a hell of a lot of them surface in recent months.
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  16. #16
    Master Joe.K's Avatar
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    Looks terrific, I remember when they were used as part of the window display and Rolex actually had stock to put in them…back when you had to be enticed to buy a sub/dweller, I imagine an AD could write ‘sports model in stock’ on a bit of cardboard for a successful window display these days.


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  17. #17
    Grand Master snowman's Avatar
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    I vaguely remember seeing these back in the day.

    Someone, possibly Rolex too, used to have a little tank with air bubbling through the water in it with a watch in.

    M

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  18. #18
    Master paneristi372's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by RustyBin5 View Post
    Very cool. Is it difficult to get the watch out or do you lift the whole helmet off rather than taking out through the face hole ?

    The porthole doesn't actually open you have to lift the entire helmet up to take the watch out.

  19. #19
    Master paneristi372's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Neil.C View Post
    I don't want to rain on your parade but I have seen so many of these helmets appear recently I am sure they are being faked.

    One chap I know in the US was "finding" lots of these at estate sales and auctioning them for big bucks on ebay. When I asked he wouldn't volunteer where he got them.

    I hope yours is real but there seems to have been a hell of a lot of them surface in recent months.
    I have been monitoring sales of these for a log time and some of the clear copies are really quite crude in comparison, it's all in the detail. I imagine there were many 100's made over the period as most AD's woild likely have had a display for the 5113, 1680's and 1665's.

  20. #20
    Grand Master Chris_in_the_UK's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Neil.C View Post
    I don't want to rain on your parade but I have seen so many of these helmets appear recently I am sure they are being faked.

    One chap I know in the US was "finding" lots of these at estate sales and auctioning them for big bucks on ebay. When I asked he wouldn't volunteer where he got them.

    I hope yours is real but there seems to have been a hell of a lot of them surface in recent months.
    There are a couple on eBay (no affiliation).

    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144038810...stomid=dealsan
    When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........

  21. #21
    Craftsman woodruffm's Avatar
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    Very cool Jamie

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  22. #22
    Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by snowman View Post
    I vaguely remember seeing these back in the day.

    Someone, possibly Rolex too, used to have a little tank with air bubbling through the water in it with a watch in.

    M

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    The dunk tank! Wow, I'd love to see one of those, I wonder if there are any still around.
    I found a massive wad of Rolex gift-wrap the other day - it came out of the basement of an Rolex AD I worked at many years ago, it was destined for the skip so I saved it before I left.
    Ugly stuff, green and gold polka-dot. Again, from a time long ago when Rolex dealers sold Rolex watches. I'll put some snaps up when I remember.

  23. #23
    Grand Master
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    Probably made in India for a few quid, I know the full size ones are copied in india, sold on the bar for 130 quid.

    Not meaning the OP's

  24. #24
    Grand Master
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    That's very cool.

  25. #25
    Craftsman
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    Quote Originally Posted by seadog1408 View Post
    Probably made in India for a few quid, I know the full size ones are copied in india, sold on the bar for 130 quid.

    Not meaning the OP's
    There’s also the smaller key ring version.Looks like a bit of trench art made by a deep sea diver. Turns out they made them in India in the 1980s.
    Lol just looked on the bay.Full of the bloody things.
    Last edited by lew07; 16th May 2021 at 16:41.

  26. #26
    very cool indeed!

  27. #27
    All the best ones to be found sitting on the shelf next to the "lung testers"

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