Cool Finds: an ultra-rare prototype of a Rolex Sea-Dweller Ref. 1665 dialed 500M/1650FT

The photo above shows a fake Rolex Sea-Dweller ref. 1665. At least, according to Jose a.k.a. Perezcope it’s a fake.

Christian Bissener, owner of Watchcollector.lu in Luxemburg, is a dealer for several independent watch brands and Indies are a big thing to us here at MONOCHROME. Through him we got to know about a few extremely rare, or even unique vintage Rolex watches. Mr. Bissener provided all information and photos of the watches, including the single red Sea-Dweller ref. 1665 shown above, and we reported about these.

Fast forward to June 2020. A person with the IG handle @perezcope sends a message that this watch is fake. I asked for proof, which he never gave, besides saying the dial was wrong and I should read his article.

Vintage Rolex might not be our core content, but when we do, we base our information on trusted dealers and institutions. In this case it was based on photos and stories provided by the aforementioned dealer from Luxemburg whom we trusted to provide trustworthy information.

Sad but true, Perezcope acts like a keyboard warrior, blaming us, in a rather vile way, for not taking the story offline because he says it’s a fake. We know a thing or two about vintage Rolex, but we’re not that far down the rabbit-hole as he apparently is. It also shows how murky the world of vintage Rolex is!

Pereszcope has a website and an IG account, where he says he acts like an investigative journalist on vintage Rolex and Panerai. Until 2-3 years ago he was often mentioned in relation to Panerai fakers, so no clean reputation to say the least. Prior to all this, I asked him to tell his story, so he could have a chance to let people know who he is and how he got the knowledge about the fakes he hunts.

If you want to learn more about Jose a.k.a. Perezcope, simply google “Jose Perezcope career”.

In the meantime, Christian Bissener responded to the turmoil via email.

Important to mention: we did not get paid or any other reimbursement for this (or any other) story we did about this watch.