Making Sense Of The Yellow-Gold Rolex Deepsea 136668LB, A Diving Weight For The Wrist

Back in April, the Rolex Deepsea 136668LB was one of the most talked about watches of Watches & Wonders. The Deepsea has always been Rolex’s biggest and boldest dive watch (until the 50mm wide Deepsea Challenge 126067 came along that is, but we’ll ignore that for now). It takes the iconic design codes of the Submariner and beefs it up to 3,900m of water resistance. So why all the buzz then? Well, because contrary to before, Rolex made it out of solid 18k yellow gold and essentially created a proper diving weight for the wrist! After some months to reflect, I thought it was time to try and wrap my head around this 320-gram behemoth of a watch.

There are watches that immediately make sense when you see them, and there are watches that make no sense at all but you love them anyway. And then there’s the heads-nor-tails category of watches that can divide a room full of watch enthusiasts faster than the date position on a dial. Some love it, some hate it, and here I am, trying to find logic in it all. The Deepsea 136668LB is that kind of a watch. Opinions were pretty much unanimous upon release, and judging the watch on paper, I felt the same. The question ‘But, why?’ was on everyone’s mind.

At 44mm wide the Deepsea is already a large watch. Add to that a height of 17.7mm and it starts to become gargantuan. Then to make it out of full yellow gold and have it tipping the scales at a monstrous 320 grams and wearing this becomes a genuine exercise! Next thing you know, you’ll have a disproportional left arm like Rafael Nadal! I am well aware of the fact you need some beef to dive to 3,900 meters of depth, at which point the hydrostatic pressure is close to 380atm (for reference, at sea level it’s 1atm). No man will survive that outside of a proper diving vessel like the Deepsea Challenger (hey, what’s in a name!). And in all honesty, 99% of all dive watches will never see depths beyond, oh let’s say a swimming pool or a spontaneous snorkelling adventure in the ocean during summer holidays.

Rolex, and many other brands and people for that matter, will state there’s a definite need for a watch to be this big to withstand such pressures, and they’re somewhat right in that, of course. At first glance though, it sounds like something extremely big and heavy, and almost uncomfortable to wear. Three hundred and twenty grams is a lot of weight for a watch. To compare, an Oystersteel Rolex Submariner weighs around 160 grams, depending on the length of the bracelet. A Sea-Dweller of the same material weighs little more than that.

Then there’s the contradiction of a proper tool watch like the Deepsea is intended to be, and the luxurious allure of 18k yellow gold. That doesn’t make any sense, now does it? Well mostly no, but there’s an argument to be made about weight and the feeling of luxury. To me, there’s an undefined link between the two. Bigger watches need to have some sort of weight to them in order to ‘work’ for me. I need to feel that I have something substantial on my wrist. That’s part of the reason I have only 1 titanium watch, and it’s not a tool watch. But steel does the trick perfectly fine, and I feel no need for the added weight of gold. So what’s left? Flexing on the boulevard of a Mediterranean hot spot, or on the high streets of the world’s leading cities? Sure, but you would run the risk of getting robbed or worse…

In all honesty, upon first handling the watch it became apparent to me that it made no sense whatsoever. For all the reasons I explained above, it simply shouldn’t work. And yet, it does…. in a weird way. A couple of weeks ago I had a bit more time with it in comparison to the mad dash that’s Watches & Wonders. And trying it on, it started to grow on me. In hand, it does indeed feel very heavy and you can’t ignore the sheer size. But on the wrist, it becomes quite balanced, both in size and weight. Granted, it helps that I have above-average-sized wrists at 19cm in circumference, but they’re not mammoth-sized either. Then there’s the weight, which the bracelet helps to distribute quite evenly, much to my surprise. It’s not overly top-heavy, nor is it uncomfortable to the point you simply can’t wear it. Far from it in fact, the fit and finish of the gold case and bracelet, the titanium caseback, and the Glidelock extension system are typical Rolex. Or in other words; extremely good!

To end this with an answer to the question I started with, the Rolex Deepsea 13668LB makes some sense, but not a whole lot. It’s a very good watch overall, as you would expect from the people at Rolex. It’s just a tad too much for most people, myself included. Despite the fact I was positively surprised when I had more than 2 minutes with it, it’s still a statement piece for the right, but also for a couple of wrong reasons. No serious diver will take this down on a dive as a backup instrument to his diving computer. Vice versa, I expect no one who buys this to need that 3,900m water resistance in their life, ever. So in the very end, what’s left is the simple fact it’s just something to flex. A very big and very heavy yellow-gold flex…

For more information, please visit Rolex.com.