Apart from these double-signed and particular commission cheap replica watches – like those given to COMEX, a topic worthy of a whole dedicated story – the simple truth with the Rolex Sea-Dwellers is that earlier equals more valuable. What’s more, those watches with stories to them command meaningful premiums. For instance, I would never forget that Jason Heaton ever being more excited than when Philippe-Pierre Cousteau’s Double-Red Sea-Dweller came up for sale. The beat-up fake Rolex sold at a very cheap price back then in 2014. We’ve seen them go even better as a good full set.
Still, Comex, Oman, and any special Double-Red have nothing on the almighty Sea-Dweller, the “Single Red.” As mentioned above, the very earliest examples of the Sea-Dweller produced even before the Double-Red watches had just one line of red text on the dial. They were rated to just 500 feet instead of 600, but they are so ungodly rare that any time one surfaces it is serious watch-guy news.
We’ve been writing about them here for over five years and rep
orting on their records without fail. In 2012, AQ sold the real Rolex for over $500,000. At that point, it was among the top three most expensive Rolex watches in history. In 2013, Sotheby’s sold one without a bezel for almost $400,000. Earlier this year, Rolex Passion Report published a fascinating look at a newly discovered Single-Red with amazing provenance. The watch was quickly sold to a collector in Asia for an undisclosed price.
Any Sea-Dweller with a great story of adventure is worth more than one without. Then we have the Comex and Omani fake watches. Then the Patent-Pending watches, with extra points for an early patent-pending bracelet. However, the holy grail of these mega Rolex divers is undoubtedly the Single-Red Sea-Dweller, which is why it was so significant to see Rolex close the loop this year by adding just a single line of red text to the best Rolex Replica here.
