1979 Rolex Sea-Dweller (Ref. 1665) Mk. III "Great White"

In the early part of the 1960s deep-sea diving and in particular mixed gas diving was advancing. The Submariner became the quintessential diver born out of the late 1950s, with its iconic design which set the standard for almost all dive watches to come thereafter its launch in 1953. The Rolex SeaDweller was born in the 1960s out of the collaboration with COMEX a French deep-sea diving company. Comex is sometimes referred to as the NASA of the deep seas and was the pioneer in mixed gas diving.

In typical Rolex fashion, meaning form following function. Most of the SeaDwellers design was born out of the need to comply with the commercial ISO 6425 diving standard, which defines test standards and features for watches suitable for diving with underwater breathing apparatus in depths of 100 m (330 ft) or more. Rolex developed a rather simple and practical mechanism to solve this issue by developing a helium escape valve on the side of the case that allowed the helium particles to escape while still maintaining an ISO 6425 diving standard and water resistance rating.

In 1977 the Rolex Sea-Dweller Ref. 1665 received an updated dial configuration. This new dial configuration is sometimes referred to as the "Great White". This updated dial differs from the previous variants, as the dial states the model as the writing "SUBMARINER 2000" which was located below "SEA-DWELLER" of previous models is now absent from the dial. In addition, "SEA-DWELLER" is now in white text as opposed to red text, which was the standard on all Sea-Dweller dials since the model's first introduction in 1967.

The Sea-Dweller is undoubtedly the most advanced amongst the diving watches of its time. Featuring a bidirectional bezel, a tropic super domed crystal to withstand greater pressure, and date complication. Fully certified and guaranteed waterproof to 2000ft - 610m.