THE ESSENTIALS

MAKE: ROLEX
MODEL: 116660
YEAR: 2008
BOX/PAPERS: YES/YES
CASE DIAMETER: 44mm
CASE MATERIAL: STAINLESS STEEL
BRACELET MATERIAL: STAINLESS STEEL
MOVEMENT: AUTOMATIC

Back in the late 2000s, Rolex had already been flexing its waterproof muscles for over 80 years. They’d basically cemented themselves as the name in dive watches, with 16600 leading the charge. But in 2008, Rolex decided “good enough” wasn’t really good enough—and swapped it out for the 116660.

Now, the Deepsea wasn’t just your standard Rolex diver with a black maxi dial and shiny ceramic bezel. This behemoth showed up measuring 44mm wide, nearly 18mm thick, rocking a titanium/steel alloy caseback, a sapphire crystal that looks like it could double as a riot shield, as well as the patented Ringlock System. Translation? It keeps the ocean out while you’re busy pretending you actually dive deeper than the hotel pool.

The Deepsea was (and still is) the most water-resistant mechanical watch in serial production. To back up the claim, Rolex teamed up with Comex and built testing gear to validate the depth. To approve the official depth rating the watch had to be tested at 125% of its claimed depth, so in this instance 4875m, or a smidge under 16000ft in old money. To put that into perspective, you could sink Mont Blanc into the ocean and still have 240ft to play with. 

This example is the mk1, easily spotted by its weird shaped coronet and from the first year of production. Whats even more remarkable is the original owner has resisted taking the stickers off and wearing it for 17 years. The watch as you would expect is complete with everything it came with from new. Inner and outer boxes, booklet, service booklet, wallet, tag, card and bezel protector.