Rolex Sea Dweller*** 16600 COMEX*** B&P 1997
ROLEX Sea Dweller Ref. 16600, COMEX, Full Set, Mint, 1997
Serial: U127169 / COMEX 3351
Circa: 1997
Reference: 16600
DIAL: Black glossy dial with applied tritium luminous triangle, dots and rectangle hour markers and COMEX logo above Sea Dweller.
Date aperture at 3 o’clock. ‘Mercedes’ hands with central sweep seconds.
CASE: 40mm, with black rotating diver bezel, helium escape valve
Caseback engraved ROLEX COMEX 3351
MOVEMENT: Caliber 3135, Self-winding mechanical movement with 31 jewels
BRACELET: Rolex stainless steel fliplock bracelet 93160/592B solid endlinks, Date Code Z6 (1997)
CONDITION REPORT: Overall mint condition. The dial and hands are flawless. The bezel insert is also orignal with an nicely aged tritium pearl. The case is in crisp and close to perfect condition and unpolished.
NOTES: This special COMEX Sea Dweller comes complete with its original box, punched papers, serial hangtag, chronometer hangtag, anchor, booklets, Sea Dweller wallet with Rolex diving decompression card and diving extension. In addition, there are dive decompression charts from COMEX, a COMEX medal, COMEX keychain, a COMEX book and several Toulon oceanic film festival pamphlets.
The fast progression and technologically inovative development of the scuba diving in industry during 1960's and 70s called for new and specially designed equipment. Watches in particular played a significant role in the undertakings of professional divers and were thus tools and relied upon heavily. This new demand for precision timepieces that could tolerate the stresses of prolonged deep water submersion sparked a period of significant innovation within the major Swiss manufactures, keen to capitalise on a fresh and growing market. Introduced in 1967, The Rolex Sea-Dweller was manufactured as an evolution of the Submariner. As divers kept pushing the limits of dive depths the technology of their equipment was tested to its limits and new technologies had to be developed. Helium atoms represent the smallest naturally occurring particles of any gas and as such could breach the seals and seep into watch cases under high pressure environments. This helium would get trapped in the watch when diving in a closed environment and then expand when going back up to the surface thus hoping off crystals and breaking the watches. The Helium Escape Valve (HEV) was primarily introduced in the 60s and first appeared on Submariners before they were then adopted and solely used by the Sea-Dweller to release pressure caused by helium infiltration.
The 16600 Sea Dweller was used by COMEX in simulated ‘saturation’ dive of up to 700m during COMEX's Hydra X trials. COMEX (Compagnie Maritime d'Expertise) was founded in 1961, in Marseille, at a time when industrial deep-sea diving did not yet exist. Very soon, however, Comex promoted new technology and became a pioneer in deep sea diving operations for the offshore oil industry.
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