Deep Sea and new SD...

[Eric5964]

So what is the future do you all think? Rolex will offer both Seadwellers?

EricE

[Psmith]

They surely will. As I posted elsewhere, the DSSD is the 'engineering statement' flagship of the Professional line

[jay1988]

The R&D for the Deepsea was 5 years and it's only just been out that long.

It's not going anywhere anytime soon.

[Dirt]

Originally Posted by jay1988

The R&D for the Deepsea was 5 years and it's only just been out that long.

It's not going anywhere anytime soon.

It may have taken 5 years to come to fruition.
But how many man hours were actually put into it?
It's possible they only had a handful of people working on it part time.

With CAD and other design tools at their disposal I think it would've been easy to develop.
It's not like they've never done anything like this before at the extreme end of the spectrum. So as a starting point, to pick something between the old Sea-Dweller and what they learned from the original Deep-Sea Special wouldn't be hard, and then test it to validate the design, with a bit of fine tuning thrown in for good measure.
It's not like they're putting a man on the moon for the first time.

IMO, the single biggest cost component of the whole project, would've been the Comex contribution of the pressure test chamber.

[ecsub44]

Originally Posted by Dirt

With CAD and other design tools at their disposal I think it would've been easy to develop.

Sure...piece of cake.

[jay1988]

Originally Posted by Dirt

It may have taken 5 years to come to fruition.
But how many man hours were actually put into it?
It's possible they only had a handful of people working on it part time.

With CAD and other design tools at their disposal I think it would've been easy to develop.
It's not like they've never done anything like this before at the extreme end of the spectrum. So as a starting point, to pick something between the old Sea-Dweller and what they learned from the original Deep-Sea Special wouldn't be hard, and then test it to validate the design, with a bit of fine tuning thrown in for good measure.
It's not like they're putting a man on the moon for the first time.

IMO, the single biggest cost component of the whole project, would've been the Comex contribution of the pressure test chamber.

Your post is purely speculation.

You're saying maybe they only had a small team working on it part time but for all you know it was a massive team working on it full time. If I had to guess I'd say it was closer to the latter.

You could be right but I doubt it. When it was released, it was the most water resistant mechanical watch in serial production. If it was so easy to do why had nobody else done it?

Also the 16600 has a 4,000 ft depth rating. Your notion that turning that into 12,800 ft "wouldn't be hard" and just required "a bit of fine tuning" is ridiculous to me.

It may not be the man on the moon (apples and oranges much?) but if was a pioneering piece of technology. Your claims that it took little work are baseless and nonsensical.

[Dirt]

Originally Posted by jay1988

Your post is purely speculation.

You're saying maybe they only had a small team working on it part time but for all you know it was a massive team working on it full time. If I had to guess I'd say it was closer to the latter.

You could be right but I doubt it. When it was released, it was the most water resistant mechanical watch in serial production. If it was so easy to do why had nobody else done it?

Also the 16600 has a 4,000 ft depth rating. Your notion that turning that into 12,800 ft "wouldn't be hard" and just required "a bit of fine tuning" is ridiculous to me.

It may not be the man on the moon (apples and oranges much?) but if was a pioneering piece of technology. Your claims that it took little work are baseless and nonsensical.

Goodness me.
I was only playing devils advocate, and look what it stirred up
Some people certainly take things very seriously indeed, and could potentially benefit from getting a life
A person could be forgiven for mistaking Rolex, for the team that designed and built the Hadron Collider.

To help put it into perspective.
It's a bit like the old advertising blurb they used to put out about the time it takes to "Make an Oyster".
They reckoned it takes a year. I think maybe it's possible
Especially when one factors in the man hours from start to finish.
But why not 360 days, or for that matter 12.5 months.
But no, it takes exactly 1 year.
How's that for perfect timing
Yes I know I sound like a bit of a sceptic. But I'm not a heretic by any means.

So now we're at the point where it took 5 years to develop the DSSD.
I wonder what's going on at Rolex these days?
With reference to the original Deep-Sea. I don't think it took them 5 years to develop the watches that originally went to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
They must have had the entire workforce working on it with hundreds of people working on those couple of little watches
They must have been falling all over each other while trying to get it done on time.
Worse still, they mustn't have learnt anything of value in the process, to use on the current model.

I personally work in the Marine field, and a well organised company with limited Human resources that have vastly varying skills levels.
Could design and build in their entirety 2 or 3 60-80 m (world class) luxury Super-yachts of different designs one after another in 5 years.
And your arguing the case for Rolex taking 5 years to bring to market a wrist watch that's already partly designed and built before they start.
What's worse is you have taken it upon yourselves to appallingly ridicule my position.
From my perspective It's just a discussion.
The point I was trying to make originally, was the only measurement of the scope of the project that matters, is the total man hours.
That's all.
I always try not to get caught up in the spin of the marketing men. And try to avoid becoming a silly fanboy sipping on the green Koolaid in the process.
That's why I believe the 5 years business is pure speculation unless it's accompanied with facts about the scale of the task.
Perhaps it was 5 years from when somebody had the dream one night to when it was finished.
I say good luck to them.

To summarize.
In terms of the scale of Rolex investment in the project, and how they envisaged they could recoup the investment. That's also pure speculation.

It could be argued that if it took 5 years to bring the DSSD into fruition, then they could've/should've done a much better job of it
And is an indictment on their capability/expertise.

The movement was already in place, along with dials and hand technology/design. So there was absolutely no development there.
They don't even make their own lume. It has to be outsourced.

The only thing they had to beef up to make it reliable at its nominated design depth, was the case and it's architecture. Give 1 bloke a week on that on the CAD without overtime and a few nana naps thrown in.
The case could've easily started as an exercise in rule of thumb design, with some fine tuning from computational tools that are widely available in the sphere of industrial design and engineering. Validation by actual pressure testing in-house, would've quickly validated the design by the use of the Comex provided pressure vessel.

All the materials are well known to them, and some other watch makers in the world. So it's not like they had to develop new materials that are totally unique to this item in the whole world.

The automated HEV is nothing new. They've been doing it for decades
All they did was scale it up, to make it look in proportion with the thicker case for asthetics.
That may have taken one person about 1.5 hours on the CAD to draw that up while sipping on a cup of coffee, and send off a copy with a press of a button to the CNC machines and tool and dye makers. Even the pope could get a copy In a matter of seconds

This brings us to the crystal.
There's nothing new there. It's just thicker and no big deal.
So it's got a curvature. Again no big deal because Omega can do it as well as other manufacturers.

The rotating bezel was a known factor to them.
It's only modified a little to accommodate the ceramic insert.
And then, by all accounts they go and put an inferior detent mechanism in place, on their flagship super high tech divers watch.
It would've been developed with a view to further implementation through out the range(as we witness on the current SDC), which amortises development costs.

The bracelet is not critical to the function, serviceability or reliability of the watch. And it's not like they had to design anything special with regards to the construction of the bracelet, as it had been done before. With the only changes being to the dimensions.
The only exception being with the clasp. Which is a superb design.
It's a pit they couldn't get the method of construction right there, by ensuring the critical welds are sound, and not prone to breaking.
Again that's another area for computational tools to be efficiently employed.

Perhaps the bulk of the time was spent working out how to get the text on the Rehaute looking in the right proportions.
Or all the text crammed onto the dial. The likes of which they've never done before. What are we at now Mk III?
With the Mk I version the font looked weird and the spacing was too crammed.
The Mk II version they got right.
The Mk III version they mucked up the spacing again.
Or was it an enormous amount of resources they expended developing the matt dial with white gold surrounds around the lume?

Come to think of it now. I've got it all wrong
It was a miracle they got it done in 5 years. All credit to Rolex.
Anybody else, and it would've taken them 6-7 years. If they managed to do it at all and given up in disgust

Gentlemen.
These days, there are a great many items in production that are totally designed/produced with the aid of computers.
A lot of these items work as intended from the earliest pre-production models, and some need a little refinement before final production runs commence.
Actually in some cases, it would be impossible to do it any other way, and an efficient, well resourced organisation like Rolex would be taking full advantage of the technology available.
Let alone in an efficient and cost effective manner.

I put it to you.
The DDSD would've been no exception to the rule.

I will conclude that I have a MK II, and I absolutely admire/adore it.
Along with all the other Rolex Wristwatches I own

Fanboys

[DCheeta]

Originally Posted by Dirt

With CAD and other design tools at their disposal I think it would've been easy to develop.

You have CAD at your disposal, too. It's available to purchase. So would it also be easy for you to develop a similar watch?

CAD didn't design that watch, CAD is just a tool...people designed that marvel of engineering. Brilliant engineers, designers, watchmakers and many others with specialized skills worked their asses off to bring us the DSSD. If I had a copy of CAD and five years time, I couldn't even design one link of the oyster bracelet.

Don't minimize the work that others do just because you know nothing about it or don't understand it.

[Rashid.bk]

Originally Posted by jay1988

The R&D for the Deepsea was 5 years and it's only just been out that long.

It's not going anywhere anytime soon.

Originally Posted by DCheeta

You have CAD at your disposal, too. It's available to purchase. So would it also be easy for you to develop a similar watch?

CAD didn't design that watch, CAD is just a tool...people designed that marvel of engineering. Brilliant engineers, designers, watchmakers and many others with specialized skills worked their asses off to bring us the DSSD. If I had a copy of CAD and five years time, I couldn't even design one link of the oyster bracelet.

Don't minimize the work that others do just because you know nothing about it or don't understand it.

Agree with the above. I find these threads amusing. A new model was added, the end, why read all this other stuff into it.

I look forward to seeing the SD4C next to the "still being sold together" Deepsea.

[drjfc62]

There's a market for both, and Rolex knows their buyers.

[sleddog]

If they don't, DSSD owners will have a watch of potential favour in the years to come.
My thought however is they'll offer both for quite some time in the future....as there's so much invested in the R&D of this fantastic watch!

[Mikey C]

Think anything will change (cosmetically) in the next couple years? I am contemplating selling my IWC Yacht Club for one. I'm on the fence big time! Losing sleep deciding....

[2ar2c1]

Originally Posted by Mikey C

Think anything will change (cosmetically) in the next couple years?

heard lug holes will be back soon

[tkerrmd]

Originally Posted by Eric5964

So what is the future do you all think? Rolex will offer both Seadwellers?

EricE

Yup

[del101]

I think the deepsea will stay, as a dive watch goes it the best of the best,if they get rid of the deepsea other watch brands will have more depth rating, the sea dweller is only 4k

[Dirt]

Originally Posted by del101

I think the deepsea will stay, as a dive watch goes it the best of the best,if they get rid of the deepsea other watch brands will have more depth rating, the sea dweller is only 4k

Good point.

[Lion]

There surely is room in the market for both watches and I'm sure Rolex will not have problems selling either of them!!!

[strafer_kid]

Would agree that Rolex are likely to run with both -can't see them pulling the Deepsea given their investment to date! Some guys may flip from the Deepsea to the new SD however, even already there are plenty in circulation for resale! Both super watches!

[brettpaul]

Yep, both in the lineup for sure

[14060m]

There's plenty of room for both

[sea-dweller]

I think they will both be offered.

[mike]

Originally Posted by sea-dweller

I think they will both be offered.

I do too, but I'd bet the $$ spread between the two will change.

[amaninspired]

I would imagine they will both be offered. It now seems logical that the DeepSea price was increased so dramatically to create space between it and the Submariner into which the new Sea-Dweller 4000 can slot. I think (and hope) that all three will coexist for a number of years to come.