"Wherever the COMEX diver goes, his Rolex... - Lot 80 - Maison R&C, Commissaires-Priseurs Associés

"Wherever the COMEX diver goes, his Rolex goes with him ROLEX SEA-DWELLER REF. 16600 "COMEX Steel wristwatch, black lacquered dial, "Rolex Oyster Perpetual Date" at 12 o'clock and "COMEX SEA-DWELLER/4000ft=1220m/SUPERLATIVE CHRONOMETER OFFICIALLY CERTIFIED", minute track with white lines, tritium circled hour markers, "Mercedes" hands, date at three o'clock, "SWISS - T<25". Unidirectional bezel, tritium ball. Case middle with helium valve. Screw-in crown signed, three points for Triplock technology. Steel caseback signed "Rolex Oyster", mention "Original Gas Escape Valve" and ROLEX 3250 COMEX on the outside, signed Rolex reference 16600, numbered N4459** on the inside. Mechanical self-winding movement signed Rolex reference 3135 with quick date, numbered 62177**. Steel Oyster bracelet reference 93160, folding clasp signed Rolex, extension blade S. Watch functional at the time of the expertise, without guarantee of future operation and condition of parts. Accompanied by its overbox labeled 16600, its green coated wooden box, its cushion and protective envelope, its official chronometer certificate with serial number, its Rolex Oyster and Rolex Submariner booklets, its chronometer certification and serial number tags, its Sea-Dweller accessory anchor, a photo of the three divers of the HYDRA 10 mission including Régis Peilho, the letter of transfer from the latter to the current owner dated and signed and its Rolex document holder containing : a 1992/1993 calendar, multilingual chronometer certification booklet, its pump hunting tool and screwdriver for links Ref. 2100, a card of the diving tables, an extension L and two additional links. Circa 1993 Diameter 40 mm The Rolex Sea-Dweller reference 16600 "COMEX" presented today is special for two reasons. The first is the story of its owner Régis Peilho and his memorable actions during his missions for COMEX, which we will detail below. The other reason is that of a watch of impeccable quality. A piece in a near new condition, never having received any service or polishing, and which comes "full set", understanding with all that the diver could have received in 1992 or 1993 when he acquired the watch. A piece probably offered by Rolex following the success of the HYDRA 10 mission, as it was the case with the watch of his comrade Theo Mavrostomos. The COMEX 16600 is the last Rolex Sea-Dweller reference delivered to the COMEX. Watches that are dispersed in several groups, our watch being part of the first group with about 100 pieces produced bearing the serial number in -N, as well as a dial with mention SWISS - T, "straight" engravings on the case back and an assignment number of type 32XX. - COMEX, or Compagnie d'Exploitation Maritime, is inseparable from the great men who made it famous worldwide. It was founded by Henri Germain Delauze in 1962 and specialized in underwater engineering. In the early 1960s, so-called "professional" diving was limited to unadventurous public works that hardly exceeded 30 meters in depth. But the 1960s, known for the search for important offshore deposits, will need the brains and arms of men, professional divers, to support this development at depths well beyond 50 meters. We owe all the important developments that followed to COMEX between 1965 and 1975. From caissons to specific diving vessels, not to mention decompression tables to rely on. To develop all this, COMEX created its Hyperbaric Experimental Center (C.E.H.) in 1964 with a limit of 365 meters, and a little later in 1968 a new site in Marseille with a double objective: on the one hand to develop underwater technologies in a 300 meter hyperbaric unit, and on the other hand a saturation unit adapted for saturation diving under hydrogen and up to 800 meters. The COMEX, beyond the divers, is also and above all an army of doctors, including doctors Xavier Fructus and Maurice Comet, scientists and engineers. With activities starting in the middle of the 1960's and lasting until the beginning of the 2000's, we note the impressive figures of 5300 operations, 1000 divers and 2700 experimental dives. If two dives are to be remembered, they are HYDRA 8 (1988) in the sea at a depth of 534 meters, where COMEX divers connected two sections of a pipeline, and HYDRA 10 (1992) in a chamber at -701 meters. It is this last dive HYDRA 10 that interests us particularly, the original owner of this Rolex Sea-Dweller Reference 16600 being one of the three divers of the mission, Régis Peilho alias "fusible". The particularity of