Three rocking new watches for 2017 - divers to die for

The Rolex Sea-Dweller, Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak Offshore Diver and Tudor Heritage Black Bay Dark all hit the right notes

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The latest Rolex Sea-Dweller celebrates the model’s 50th anniversary.

Published: 6:30pm, 22 Jun 2017Updated: 6:30pm, 22 Jun 2017

This column’s recent deep dive into the sonic output of the late Scatman John elicited a furious response from my loyal readers. All of five of them. It seems the Scatman is a divisive figure, with many questioning his oeuvre, his legacy and, in one case, his scat skills. I won’t reopen this can of phonic worms (or open the one marked “Phil Collins”), so this week I’ll try and stick to the watches.*

Despite the sun shining outside, against all odds, I’ve been taking a look at some new pieces arriving in Hong Kong. June is a busy time of the year, as a lot of the Baselworld watches finally hit Hong Kong boutiques – and the brand I’m sure will get the punters lining up is Rolex.

One of the most popular pieces will be the 2017 Sea-Dweller, which has a sticker price of HK$88,000. What do you get for all that money? Well, first off, this is an anniversary watch celebrating 50 years of the Sea-Dweller, so out of the gate it’s a collector’s item. The other new elements that should prove popular are a larger 43mm case, the “Sea-Dweller” logo in red on the dial in a nod to the original, and the addition of Rolex’s legendary cyclops lens over the date window.

Rolex, for many, is an easy lover and this Sea-Dweller is hard not to love. As for the specs, unsurprisingly, this watch is built like a tank, the steel case is as robust as they come, the unidirectional bezel is made of tough ceramic and the strap is Rolex’s famed Oyster bracelet, which is so good it does a roaring trade of its own on eBay.

Inside is a 3235 in-house movement complete with all of Rolex’s industry-leading technology. Oh, we mustn’t forget it’s a dive watch, so this Sea-Dweller has water resistance to 1,220 metres, which is so impressive I wish it would rain down, in Biblical proportions, to put it through its paces.