New Book Goes Deep with 60 Years of Rolex Dive Watches

"It was a labor of love," said Reza Rashidian, referring to the 20-some years it took him to bring together his remarkable collection of 60 years' worth of Rolex dive watches "I've been obsessively collecting all versions of what I consider to be the most serious dive watches Rolex ever made It would be impossible to put this collection together again" "Finding untouched prototypes like these was like finding hen's teeth.

To find a watch in original form, that's where the hunter in me comes in," said the man behind the cult-favorite ProHunter Rolex site The star of the collection is "By far the most important dive watch in the world When I bought the Deep Sea Special No.

1 from Christie's it was a world-record price for a Rolex." "The No 2 is rumored to have been destroyed in testing, and from the No 3 onwards the watches were modified to allow for deeper dives.

We know that there are a minimum of 5 Deep Sea Specials, as No 5 has also surfaced, and a maximum of 8 as from number 9 onwards the watches were display models that have little but a passing resemblance to the prototypes and were made purely to be shown in museums or dealerships or the like." The noted watch scholar and collector has photographed, designed, and produced a number of authoritative reference tomes on watches under the name John Goldberger, accompanied by stories researched and written by Daniel Bourn Two of the watches in the book are being sold at Phillips upcoming auction November 11 in Geneva. Source