Rolex

Sea-Dweller Deepsea (Blue Dial)

Name: Rolex Sea-Dweller Deepsea (Blue Dial)
Brand: Rolex
SKU: 136668LB
Availability: InStock

Ref. 136668LB

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Case44mm 18k yellow gold

DialBlue

MovementCalibre 3230

BraceletYellow Gold Oyster

Year2025

PapersBox and Papers

The Sea-Dweller line descends from saturation divers of the 1960s, engineered with a helium escape valve for life in pressurised habitats. It is the professional’s Submariner.

Rolex's Sea-Dweller Deepsea, here in 44mm 18k yellow gold, carrying a blue display. Calibre 3230 keeps it running.

Fun fact: The Sea-Dweller was developed with COMEX divers in the 1960s and its helium escape valve solves a specific problem: gas that seeps into the case during saturation has to get out during decompression.

Deepsea in solid gold, blue dial

Reference136668LB

Case44mm 18k yellow gold, blue Cerachrom bezel

MovementRolex calibre 3235, automatic, about 70 hours

Introduced2024

Why this one matters

The Deepsea began in 2008 as the deep water version of the Sea-Dweller, rated to 3,900 metres and built around the Ringlock system: a nitrogen-alloyed steel compression ring inside the case, a thick domed sapphire seated above it and a grade 5 titanium back below. A helium escape valve sits at 9 o'clock for saturation work.

Rolex reworked the case in 2022 with the steel 136660, giving it a slimmer bezel, a larger date window and a restamped RLX titanium caseback. In 2024 that case carried the first Deepsea in solid gold: 18k yellow gold with a blue ceramic bezel and matching blue dial, sold alongside the steel version. The depth rating and the titanium caseback carry over unchanged.

The movement

Calibre 3235 is the base Rolex runs across the Datejust and Submariner families: Chronergy escapement, Parachrom hairspring, Paraflex shock absorbers, about 70 hours of reserve, rated to 2 seconds a day. The Ringlock architecture carries the pressure load through the case rather than the movement, so the calibre works in ordinary conditions regardless of depth. Instantaneous date, quickset from the crown, read through an unmagnified aperture at 3 o'clock. The Deepsea has never carried a Cyclops, since the domed 5.5mm crystal is built for pressure rather than legibility aids.

On the wrist

44mm across and tall, because the Ringlock case has to be. In gold the weight on the bracelet is the first thing anyone notices, well beyond what a steel diver prepares you for. The Oyster bracelet uses an Oysterlock clasp with the Glidelock extension, which lets you set the fit precisely, and you need to: this is a watch that has to sit strapped down rather than loose.

Questions we are asked about this reference

Is the gold version rated the same as the steel one?

Yes. Both use the Ringlock case and both are rated to 3,900 metres. The metal changes the weight and the price, not the specification.

Why a titanium caseback on a gold watch?

It does structural work. The back flexes slightly under pressure and loads the compression ring, and titanium suits that job. Rolex kept it for the gold model rather than substituting a matching caseback.

How does it compare with the standard Sea-Dweller?

The Sea-Dweller is 43mm and rated to 1,220 metres, and it is noticeably thinner and lighter. The Deepsea is the larger, deeper and heavier watch of the two, particularly in gold.

Sea-Dweller

The saturation diver's Rolex, built around a valve that lets helium out

Rolex created the Sea-Dweller in 1967 for divers working out of pressurised habitats, and improved it afterwards in partnership with Comex. The defining part is not the depth figure but the helium escape valve in the case side, which opens by itself when helium that seeped in during a saturation dive builds up inside the case on the way back to the surface. The 43 mm Sea-Dweller is rated to 1,220 m, runs a unidirectional bezel with a black Cerachrom insert and an Oysterlock clasp with the Glidelock extension, and was the first in the line to take a cyclops over the date; it is made in Oystersteel and in Oystersteel with yellow gold. Rolex now lists the Deepsea as a family of its own, the 44 mm model rated to 3,900 m and built on the Ringlock System case architecture.

helium escape valve at 9 o'clock

unidirectional Cerachrom bezel

Oysterlock clasp, Glidelock extension

red SEA-DWELLER line on the Oystersteel dial

Sizes in the family

43 mm Sea-Dweller, with the Deepsea at 44 mm

Who it suits

For the buyer who wants a case built for saturation diving and is comfortable with the thickness that comes with it.

See every Sea-Dweller we have