Loading...A fellow collector from Italy sent these photos of a still brandnew polizia di stato Seadweller to me to publish on my blog. Thank you to E..
This is a watch which was issued to the Italian police only: Only 78 pieces were made. So this is a very rare timepiece. This watch is also nicknamed the “Octopussy” because the dial has an octopus on the left side near 9 o’clock.
For further reading I recommend Stefano Mazzariol’s Blog:
http://stefanomazzariol.
In order to know the complete story of the unit, I would suggest reading the book “The State Police divers”.
In July of 2008 upon initiative by agents of the Cnes (underwater and nautical center), to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the unit with a watch dedicated to, but self financed by, the agents. They obtained all the clearance from the Ministry and their Command, to be able to use the Police logo and second, Stefano contacted Rolex Italy through the La Spezia dealer Montre et Bijoux, which had to be authorized by Rolex Geneva.
79 Sea Dweller 16600s were delivered with one of them remaining in Rolex. At the time of the order confirmation, Rolex requested a written referral in which the agents committed themselves to not commercialize the watch. Personalisation was on both dial and rear.
The dial has their logo at the nine o’clock position: an octopus surrounded by a double circle with the writing “State Police Divers”, and it is the same on each watch.
The bottoms however have been engraved with specific requests. All the watches have engraved in the middle section: “state Police divers 1958-2008”, and for those who requested it was engraved the brevet number: “BRV, SMZ,N.000”. Some even had engraved an affectionate nick-name.
There is only one watch for each brevet number. An additional lucky combination which will contribute to the collectability of these watches in the future is that of the serial letter V, it appears that there are no more than 500 Sea dwellers in the world.
(Taken from Stefanos Blog)
Hope you enjoy.