Omega

The collaboration between Rolex and Comex is very famous, but the diving watches addicts know very well that the Omega Seamaster has also been tested and used by Comex from the late 1960’s to the 1970’s. The Seamaster 300 has been the choice of many of th...  

I love the 1000! Do you know, or does anyone know the significance to the markings on the bezel? I would love to know there rational. for watch that is designed for such deepdepths, i doubt its any form of N.D. table, but perhaps for count down or some th... 

....the number of years you'll have to wait to source such a watch ? Seriously, the crazy thing is that I have been offered this watch when it was bought by a local dealer from the original owner. But I did not believe in it, as I had never seen such a th... 

I love the seconds hand!! Maybe the bezel is count the number of days in saturation!! Do you not a some comex diver contact from your previous Comex aquisitions, who could maybe shed some light on this bezel? Its a great post. Tony

...I bought my first Rolex Comex to one of the Janus divers, who used the Ploprof. He did not like the watch at all and was really happy to obtain a Rolex by the way.... LOL I will ask him about the bezel.

..from a working / diving perspective. and yes, that would be great if you can ask him about the bezel. Have a good weekend. Cheers Tony

and while this watch was made for Janus 2 (If I read correctly - so 200m with working excursions to 250m), I would've thought all those dives would have been performed with constant full communication during the dive. Not that this discounts a watch on th... 

Works for all of the depths (in meters), the only one, as you say thats a bit 'out' is the 30m, but, when you look at other tables, e.g., Royal Navy, BSAC etc etc, they all were constantly changing every 5yrs or so, over the 60's / 70's as different 'expe... 

I too, was looking for something exotic, related to the Janus dives. Looked though my files of Comex tables...but they're all Air. Then it clicked. Nilo has a post in HoMe re: a similar bezel on a Kontiki.

well done !! and btw Mike is a real " lucky b............" ( old expression from the WW II in use on the US Army ) LLOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

but if I remember well, you also have a Comex Ploprof...;-)

LLOOLLLL ....

(in my holy opinion)

For another extremely valuable post. I always considered the SM600 as more of a curiosity than a watch but your post changed my point of view. It's a real tool watch and, in its ugliness, has some charm, despite of being ridiculous on my wrist. I also sav... 

...  

of the " proto-ploprof " inside ... its has some differences from standard cases , such as the famous 3 " holes " that are far smaller : in the inside there is also ( hidden ) a service from Bianchì .... ...  

here are some pics of another plotoploprof appeared around 10 years ago ... altough the very small size you can see that the " small holes " are the very same , as they also appear in the Omega service schedule ... last picture shows the inside of a stand...  

Long time... I hesitated a lot, then passed on it. Cool watches for sure. The problem I have with the Plo Prof is that each time I tried one, mmy wrist said no... Nice post, Jeff. Best, Nicolas

...I declined it in Marseille when it surfaced....stupid me !

. . . "when it surfaces"? :-) That is the cleverest pun imaginable! Thanks very much for the report, Jeff, and I now realize what you meant when alluding to the need for one a few weeks ago. You must've been working on this for quite some time. Impressed,... 

thanks for all this great info. I had never seen this 1000m prototype! wow what a look! Matt

Thank you very much for sharing this post, Jeff! :) A very interesting part of divers history! Best Blomman

don't regret it guys as ... the watch has a very sad story about the owner behind .... so sad that nobody wanted to buy in Marseilles and .. the French dealer took about two years to sell it to a completely unaware Italian collector .. the funny thing is ... 

to respect the diver .. I prefer to give details by mail and not in an open forum . ( )

nt

I learnt a lot! Thanks. Fx

very good thread for a mythic Watch ;)

je sais que tu aimes aussi la Comex et son histoire

...and also (maybe) because Janus II was taking place in my country ciao and thanks again Jeff, Marcello and all ;)

from top to bottom : 1) detail of the original isofrane 2) dial and back 3) certificate from Omega 4) certificate from Bianchì 5) dial-back ...  

...are these prototypes not supposed to have the mk0 dial that only says "Seamaster" ? ...  

of the 4 seen untill now only one had the first dial version ( " SEAMASTER " only) .. and it's the one from the famous post made around 2003 in a French forum ( that certainly knows well .... LLOOLL ) the other 3 had all the same dial ( like in MW's watc... 

the Comex watches with more history behind , in spite of their ugly look ... just a link about the " Precontinent " operations ( in which either Chouteau and Xavier Fructus were present ) : so , talking about the French " milieux hyperbare " ( and the wa... 

between the 2 teams is Octave Leandrì ( dit " Titi " ) that was in the early 60s member of the Calypso crew and later went to work at Comex untill his retirment.

.... that lots of divers in the early 70's worked for both Comex and Cousteau. It was a small world.... Your comment concerning the movement change is very interesting, I was wondering why there qere still some prototypes in 1972... Another picture of a "...  

it is also possible that not all prototypes have been delivered at the same time .... but as the case of mine is exactly the same you have in the famous prototype shown in the French forum 10 years ago .... ( with the small " holes " seen only in these pr... 

service intervalls due to the use and the interest, the factory put into these prototypes. it is very likely, that the factory changed the movements themselves. kind regards from australia. achim

and yes movements were changed by the factory ( or sometimes even " at the factory " ) as the only way to know if a ploprof is a watch given to Comex is to enter Omega records with the number of the movement as they have no case number. ( same thing happe... 

I find this watch very ugly ( from an aesthetic point of view ) ... but nevertheless is one of the most fascinating and intriguing watches ever made , especially of you consider that his early history is quite significant but almost unknown.

So let me simply thank you for putting together these materials in an easiest way to digest. Your article makes me want to wear my Ploprof now but unfortunately it is not with me at the moment. Ruckdee

...and if anyone has more pictures of the SM300's used by Comex, I would be very interested in seeing them.

This is another fine example of why I find myself on Purists almost every day. The research and detail is second to none.

more stuff coming...

Great vintage looking watch