In what I believe is a first for our humble Hodinkee Bring A Loupe column, today we have an exclusive announcement. UK perfect replica Rolex Deep Sea Special number 35 watches have surfaced for sale in London, and you’re hearing it here first.
The Rolex Deep Sea Special is a name used for what was essentially the first prototype or experimental deep sea dive watch from Rolex. The Sea-Dweller and Deepsea all start right here with the Deep Sea Special project. Of course, the best fake watches lean heavily on the Oyster case, but it should be noted straight away that this is an experimental watch made to be attached to the outside of a submersible. It is huge and best viewed as a piece of Rolex history rather than something to fill a slot in your watch box. Cue the Indiana Jones, “this belongs in a museum” thoughts. But have no fear—numerous examples of this watch are found in museums such as the Smithsonian and the Beyer Museum in Zurich.
Rolex produced a few versions of the high quality copy Rolex Deep Sea Special watches throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Ultimately, this project’s success came on January 23, 1960, when a Deep Sea Special reached the deepest point in Earth’s seabed, the bottom of Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench (10,916 meters), while attached to the outside of the Trieste—a bathyscaphe manned by Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard and US Navy lieutenant Don Walsh.
This record-setting 1960 dive was preceded by two Trieste “trial” runs in 1953 and 1956. The Deep Sea Special online replica watches were also attached to the vessel on those dives. Rolex made slight changes to the design after each dive; ultimately, three Deep Sea Special versions were created, culminating in that 1960 dive.
After the successes of Trieste and the actual Deep Sea Specials, Rolex wanted to get the word out. A run of commemorative Deep Sea Specials was made to the exact same specs as the Mariana Trench watch. The total number of examples produced is not known, as it has never been confirmed by UK cheap super clone Rolex watches, but we know of a number 47 owned by Rolex. Whatever the exact number may be, a two-digit production run is extremely, extremely low for the Crown.
Not technically available for retail purchase, the commemorative Deep Sea Special buy copy watches are believed to have been presented to museums and top Rolex retailers around the world in the mid to late 1960s.
The shop replica watches available for sale today is a known and accepted example. Previously owned by Wuppertaler Uhrenmuseum, in, of course, Wuppertal, Germany, Number 35 has been offered at public auction twice before, most recently via Phillips in 2021, where it sold for CHF 1,058,500. While it’s a beast on the wrist, this is a piece of Rolex history. If the three Deep Sea Specials that were actually strapped to the Trieste are similar to Apollo-flown Speedmasters, these commemorative examples are akin to the gold Speedies we looked at from Gus Grissom two weeks ago.
The seller, Adrian, Oscar, and the team at Maunder Watches plan to list this historically important Swiss fake Rolex watches in the coming days.
