Mark 2, Tropical Dial 1665 ‘Double Red’ Rolex Sea-Dweller

The 1665 Double Red Sea-Dweller (DRSD) is like a 5513 Sub turned up to eleven. It’s a little more technical with a helium valve, a little more appealing to some for its lack of cyclops, and just a little more nuanced in the details. But this DRSD goes way past eleven, thanks to a dial that’s a dead-on milk chocolate. If you like objects that are better worn-in, this may just be the ultimate. It’s the most serious 60s Rolex tool watch, at least on an engineering level. It’s the most beautifully lived-in dial you’ll find. And in a world where there’s now a solid gold Sea-Dweller, it is a reminder of the Rolex we all fell in love with.

In 1665 dials, the very first were single reds. There are thought to be 11 or 12 of these, given to professional divers chosen by T. Walker Lloyd, an oceanographic consultant of Rolex, for testing or as awards following US Navy Sealab expeditions. After these were the DRSD, an early model with two coveted lines of red text in production from 1967-1977. After both came the ‘Great White’ 1665 with all white text. Of that evolution, it is the Mk2 DRSD which has a tendency to most turn chocolate. Mk2 dials started in 1968 and were also the first to have a caseback displaying ‘Rolex Patent Oyster Gas Escape Valve’ after the Mk1 ‘Patent Pending’ backs.

The dial was covered in a composition of lacquer that reacted aggressively with UV light. To spot the Mk2, look at the text ‘SUBMARINER 2000’, which is slightly smaller here than the ‘SEA-DWELLER’ font above. Additionally, the coronet is printed in a slightly blurry way on this lacquer, leading some to call the Mk2 smudge crown. Both of these ‘faults’ were corrected by the Mk3 dial, leading these Mk2s to insane levels of collectability. Moreover, these came with what is known as the thin case, a proportion more svelte than the latter Mk3. Despite once being a tool of purpose, the 1665 is now lore and a collectors’ darling with comparable tropical Mk2 dials auctioning regularly above 100K USD. They aren’t tools anymore today, they’ve formed into this strange used-tools-as-art category, now extremely highly collected. But, if one values watches by simply the level of gravitational attraction, for the right sort of watch enthusiast, this is an M87 Black Hole. It is the very core of Rolex identity, not an emoji in sight. So maybe it’s not that insane after all.

This example has a case that has been ‘polished back to factory specs’, which should be noted (not sure if that means recut here precisely, but probably). It’s professionally done. The dial, though, is original and simply fantastic. Even chocolate with slight gradient, cream tritium matched in the handset. It is on a 9315/258. It comes from a well-regarded California retailer.