Rolex Deepsea and Rolex Deepsea Challenge Extreme divers’ watches

The Rolex Deepsea in Oystersteel comes with an intense black dial or D-blue dial. It features a unidirectional rotatable bezel with graduated Cerachrom insert in black ceramic. In 2024, the brand unveiled an 18 ct yellow gold version with a blue dial and a Cerachrom bezel insert in blue ceramic.

Oyster Perpetual Deepsea Challenge

The Deepsea Challenge reaffirms Rolex’s legitimacy as a pioneering brand in the world of watches for deep-sea diving and its expertise in waterproofness and resistance to underwater pressure.

This 50 mm watch is an adaptation of the Rolex Deepsea Challenge – the experimental watch that accompanied filmmaker and explorer James Cameron into the Mariana Trench in 2012, attached to the exterior of his submersible.

Crafted from RLX titanium, the Deepsea Challenge is available with an intense black dial and features a unidirectional rotatable bezel with graduated Cerachrom insert in black ceramic.

Stringent waterproofness tests

In deep-sea diving, absolute reliability and security are of the essence. The waterproofness of every Rolex Deepsea and Deepsea Challenge watch is tested with a safety margin of 25 per cent, in accordance with the standard in effect for divers’ watches.

The Rolex Deepsea, guaranteed waterproof to a depth of 3,900 metres, is thus effectively subjected to the pressure exerted at 4,875 metres deep, while the Deepsea Challenge, waterproof to 11,000 metres, is subjected to the pressure exerted at 13,750 metres deep.

For these stringent tests, the brand developed a special hyperbaric tank for the Rolex Deepsea and an ultra-high-pressure (UHP) tank for the Deepsea Challenge in conjunction with Comex (Compagnie Maritime d’Expertises), the world-renowned French company specializing in underwater engineering and hyperbaric technologies.