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The Encyclopedia of Horology

Experimental deep-sea pressure-resistant watch · Switzerland

Rolex Deep Sea Special (Trieste bathyscaphe test pieces)

Partially verified

Experimental prototypes, not a production model, attached externally to the bathyscaphe Trieste for record-depth descents, including the 1960 Challenger Deep dive with Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh.

Technical facts

Case
Specially engineered thick-crystal pressure case, not based on a standard production case
Depth reported
Reported to have survived the Challenger Deep descent (documented depth figures for the 1960 dive vary slightly between period and later sources and should be checked against primary expedition records)

Historical significance

  • Experimental prototypes, not a production model, attached externally to the bathyscaphe Trieste for record-depth descents, including the 1960 Challenger Deep dive with Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh.
  • Used to demonstrate Rolex's pressure-case engineering rather than sold commercially; researchers should distinguish these one-off/small-batch experimental pieces from later production 'Sea-Dweller' or 'Deepsea' commercial models that share only a marketing lineage.

Sources & references

  1. Rolex, published history of the Deep Sea Special test pieces
  2. Smithsonian Institution, exhibition records

Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.