ARF | Deepsea 136660 — Fourth Time Down

The Deepsea is the watch for people who find 300 metres a little shallow. The genuine article is rated to 3,900. ARF’s version is rated to the bottom of a sock drawer, which is where most of them end up anyway, and it has just been refreshed in black and in D-Blue.

The release

The factory poster promises three things: a 44 mm case, a one-piece Dandong-made 3235 clone, and the words “fourth generation”. The reference it follows is the 136660, the current Deepsea, introduced in 2022. It replaced the 126660 of 2018, which was the first Deepsea with calibre 3235. The update brought a slimmer bezel, a larger date aperture, a titanium caseback and the end of the Fliplock dive extension. The case stays 44 mm across and about 17.7 mm tall, with the Ringlock inner ring, a helium escape valve and 3,900 m of water resistance. The genuine 3235 offers about 70 hours of reserve.

Both dials are here. The black is the plain one. The D-Blue fades from blue to black and dates back to 2014, when it was launched to mark a solo dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Its green model name was originally meant to match the submarine. On a clone it mainly matches the other clone.

New, or newly photographed?

Honestly, a bit of both. An ARF 136660 with a claimed Dandong 3235 has been in owners’ hands since at least August 2026, so this is not the first of its kind. “Fourth generation” appears to be the factory’s own version count, and we could not find a list of what changed between generations. The fairest reading is an updated version of an existing watch, not a new model.

The movement deserves the same caution. At least one owner report on an earlier example questioned whether the Dandong 3235 claim matched the movement inside. The movement photo here shows a convincing 3235-style layout. A photograph cannot tell you who made it.

The take

In the photographs, the bezel graduations, the inner ring text and the dial printing look tidy, and the gradient on the D-Blue looks smooth rather than painted on with a roller. The case profile has the right stepped, top-heavy look. Whether the fourth generation is meaningfully better than the third is a question for a timegrapher and a few months on the wrist. Until then, it is the familiar watch with a fresher label, and the label, at least, is accurate about being new.

Release report based on the factory poster, photographs and owner reports. We have not handled this example. The movement maker, the one-piece construction and the generation claim are the factory’s, not independently verified.