NEWS: The New Rolex Deepsea with D-Blue dial announced
Felix ScholzFROM RUMOUR TO REALITY….
Well, the wait is over. This morning (Australian time), Rolex announced a brand new Deepsea Sea-Dweller, breaking their regular release schedule to commemorate James Cameron’s 2012 Mariana Trench dive (also timed to coincide with the release of the Deepsea Challenge 3D film).
But before we look at the real deal, let’s take a quick look at the pretenders.
Most honourable mockup: Monochrome’s Blue on Blue Deepsea
The guys at Monochrome give good mock-up, and this conservative rendition seemed to be legit on paper. Blue dial and blue bezel is an obvious choice for a new model, but they too were thrown by Rolex’s curveball.
Worst in show. This guy
Rolex release + Watch forum + photoshop = trolling paradise. Look, the best that can be said for this blue and white gold mock up is that the photoshop is pretty good. But the poor spelling and grammar (not to mention the distinctly un-Rolex tone) give the game away on this tongue-in-cheek mock-up.
The Real Deal.
The fact is, it would have taken some pretty impressive inside-running to guess the actual release. To our credit, we were approximately right in our prediction, some days ago. But only in the broadest terms. The nuances of this watch are very unpredictable, and as the mid-century designer Ray Eames constantly reminded us, ‘The detail is the design’. Let’s get into them…
Rolex have released the new Rolex Deepsea Sea-Dweller with ‘D-Blue’ dial in New York, to celebrate James Cameron’s historic solo dive of the deepest point in the ocean, the Mariana Trench.
To capture the spirit of this exploration to the depths Rolex have created a brand new two-colour gradient dial. The D-blue dial echoes the colour gradation of the trench, moving from blue to deepest black. The achievement of this gradual two tone effect is very impressive, and we suspect it is nothing short of stunning in real life. This professional grade tool-watch is also capable of providing illumination in the darkest depths, thanks to the Chromalight luminous material on the indices and hands.
And while this watch may not be everything for all fans, it’s a fitting tribute to a great accomplishment and a clear demonstration of Rolex’s continued technical proficiency.
