The elusive Comex Double Red Sea Dweller
Sometimes patience is important for a collectorâ¦.
After declining and missing Comex watches for the past ten years, my day also had to come...
So last tuesday, I took a short car trip to meet an ex Comex diver....
This gentleman entered the Comex in early 1970. He told me that the same day he was hired, he was asked to dive at -80m to show if he was "made for the job"....
In september of the same year, he participated with two other divers to the Janus II experiment: he worked during 8 days at -255m to fix a pipeline, wearing an Omega Ploprof that "never really worked well"....;-)
This experiment was a great success and demonstrated the ability of man to work at such depth.
In 1971, he became Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite for his achievements.
The same year, he was given by Comex one of the 10 Sea Dweller that had just been delivered by Rolex. The existence of these watches is only known by a handful of collectors at this point and most people think that the first Rolex delivered to Comex were the batch of 5513's sold in 1972.
The Sea Dweller in question did not leave the diver's wrist for the next 20 years: he was wearing it when diving in the North Sea, Malta, Labrador, Congo, Gabon, etc...
In the early 1990's, he stopped wearing it because he had just been offered a quartz Breitling watch. Since his house had been robbed twice, his wife decided to hide the Rolex in a teapot they never used. Then they both forgot about the watch for almost 20 years...until last week...
Luckily enough, he told a friend of mine about the lost watch that he had just found...and now the watch has a new home !
So hereâs what a Comex watch looks like after having being abused for many years and worn from the frozen deep of the sea to the burning desert of Africa !
The Comex lighter came with the watch as a gift !
The watch still has its original Double Red mk2 dial (this was confirmed to me by the first and only owner before me) and the original handset. The dial has turned to a crazy brown color and the tritium indexes have such a nice patina !
I had never handled one of these early Comex DRSD's before, but I know that two other watches of the same delivery batch have already "surfaced".....so more informations to follow !
An early delivery of a handful of 1665's to Comex is not well documented but of course makes pretty much sense, as this model was developed for the company by Rolex in 1967; it would have been surprising that Comex did not ask for any SD before 1977, when the famous batch of 1665's with logo dial and 2XXX issues number was delivered. Even if all the divers did not need 610m watches, the 255m limit was already reached since 1970... hence the need of a handful of SD's in the early 1970's !
Acknowledgements: many thanks to Marcello Pisani for his knowledge about Comex watches !
wow! my jaw dropped..
the before and after is a world of difference and not to mention the immaculate provenance from the original COMEX diver, your patience paid off handsomely.
more than congratulations! Great Job!
Amazing story and watch
That's what is called an old barn find for a car.
I know some retired divers. I am going to call them!
Cheers
Dje
Congratulations, Jeff!
Patience really did pay off for you. I cannot imagine a better way to get such a historical piece like this. I love that it was kept in a teapot for 20 years. Hmmmm.... that gives me some ideas. LOL.
Getting this from one of the COMEX divers, and having the full provenance of the watch must make this very special for you. Despite the "abuse" of so many decades, it looks to be in amazing shape. Just knowing the adventures that the watch went on with its owner over two decades is awesome. Precious few watches will ever come with that kind of personal history.
So, will you actually wear this watch?
Thanks for sharing, and congratulations again!
respo
It won't leave my wrist...
Service???
20 years without running should be no problem. It is a Rolex after all. LOL. I hope it is not gone for long, and I am delighted to hear it is attached to your wrist.
respo
It's definitely running fine !
and it's quite amazing for a watch that has suffered so much and then has been forgotten for 20 years.
But that's why we like Rolex, or ?
I will only have it serviced because it would damage the movement to keep it running that way I guess...
And I also have a watchmaker that still has some specific parts left (HEV gasket for instance), so let's do it while I can !
Cheers
Jeff
ooooooo
aaaa, euuuuuh, hmmmmm
I am very sorry Jeff, I just can't think correctly any more.
Best regards
A completely stunned Francois
Wow. A great story and watch.
Thanks for sharing Jeff.
Does Rolex authenticate or verify such watches?
- SJX
To me...
...there is not much to authentificate here.
But I can try to learn more from Rolex about these early deliveries in general.
Cheers
Jeff
This is one unbelievable story
had after your friend told you
about opportunity to have such rare beast
and after becoming new owner
Great
thank you for sharing
damian
Great shoot...Great...
Great shoot...Great watch...Great story...
Everything Goooood!!!
Thanks for sharing...
Best
Chung
Wow,wow ,wow!
A great find and with such provenance! I can see the grin on your face from here 
Thanks for sharing a wonderful story.
cheers
fernando
WOOOOWWWW Jeff....biggest congrats.....
Wonderful watch with an unbelievable nice provenance........BREATHTAKING !!
Enjoy this rarity every second.
Best
Matthias
Yes Matthias....
...I'm sure you appreciate the brown dial as much as I do ;-)
Cheers
Jeff
Great story Jeff!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And what a great watch, I love the coler of those tropic MK2 dials.
Enjoy!!!!!!
Cheers,
Bas.nl
Yes, those Mk2 dials are cool....
....and when you know the history of the first 1665's - which were really experimental watches - you think that maybe there are some even earlier Comex SD's somewhere !
Cheers
Jeff
