The Deep (1977)

The Deep

A vacationing couple diving off Bermuda finds morphine ampoules and a jeweled crucifix in a WWII wreck, drawing them into conflict with a drug kingpin as they hunt the rest of a sunken Spanish treasure. (Wikipedia) Directed by Peter Yates from Peter Benchley's novel, the film stars Robert Shaw, Jacqueline Bisset, and Nick Nolte; Columbia Pictures released it June 17, 1977.

Watches

Rolex Submariner 1680

Worn by Nick Nolte as David Sanders. BAMF Style identifies David's dive watch as a Rolex Submariner Date, ref. 1680, its 3:00 date window distinguishing it from the earlier no-date Submariner. (BAMF Style) Sources disagree on the exact model: Montres de Luxe instead identifies the watch as a Rolex Sea-Dweller. The available scene frame shows a black dial with a single date window at 3 o'clock and a matching bracelet, consistent with either reference, and the case's dedicated helium escape valve, which would settle the question, is not visible from this angle. (Montres de Luxe) Sotheby's sold the watch itself in Geneva on 11 May 2021 (Important Watches: Part I, lot 36, CHF 18,900) as a "'The Deep' Submariner, Ref. 1680 ... worn by Nick Nolte in the film", consigned by the film's propmaster Terry Wells Sr., to whom the essay says Nolte gave it when filming ended: a white-text 1680 made in 1975, case 4'163'403, with "The Deep, 1976" engraved on the case back. The lot settles the reference as the Submariner 1680, not the Sea-Dweller. (Sotheby's lot 36)

© Columbia Pictures

Seiko 62MAS

Worn by Robert Shaw as Romer Treece. Probable identification. Romer Treece, the Bermuda treasure hunter, wears a steel skin-diver with a narrow black bezel, a black dial with block luminous markers and a date at three o'clock, on a perforated black tropic rubber strap. BAMF Style identifies it as the Seiko 62MAS, the 1965 diver that was Japan's first, and credits the identification to a reader, @lukelesko, in its Instagram comments. Its close frame of Treece wiping his hands shows the slab-sided case without crown guards and the tropic strap; no dial text is legible at that size, so the model rests on the case, bezel and marker layout. (BAMF Style)

© Columbia Pictures