Rolex Submariner, Rolex Submariner 116613lb

Oct. 20, 2010 - PRLog -- Rolex Submariner 116613lb

n the early 1950-ies there was an increasing interest in scuba diving. Rolex was quick to pick-up on this trend and one of the company directors Mr Jeanneret - an avid amateur diver - convinced company founder Hans Wilsdorf (1881-1960) that a special watch for scuba divers and maritime professionals had a lot of potential.

http://www.ginault.com/en/rolex-submariner/rolex-submariner-116613lb.html

By 1953 Rolex lend their first prototype Deep-Sea to Dimitri Rebikoff. Mr Rebikoff was a French engineer known for his work in underwater photography work, as well as submarine exploration.

Rolex Submariner 116613lb

Mr Rebikoff had also developed the first underwater vehicle for divers in 1952. Mr Rebikoff was back then vice-president of the Institute of Submarine Research in Cannes, France. Rolex cooperated with the institute on a study of underwater watches and waterproofness.

Under Mr Rebikoff's supervision the prototype was subjected to 132 dives up to depths of 60 meters over a 5 months period. It passed the trials without problems. However, some of the original designs were changed. For instance a red luminous triangle at 12 o'clock was changed to white, as the red colour was not visible below 10 meters. A luminous wedge was also added.

The prototype was as mentioned earlier named Deep-Sea. However, this was only one of several possible names for the watch. Others were Frogman, Deep-Sea Special, Nautilus, Skin Diver, Deep-Sea Diver, and Dive-O-Graph. Founder Hans Wilsdorf is supposed to have been quite fond of Deep-Sea Special. Nevertheless it was changed to Submariner shortly before the new diving watch was introduced to the public in the summer of 1953. However the name Submariner was not registered to Rolex until sometime in the early 1960-ies. A bit strange really.