Rolex. A rare stainless steel automatic bracelet watch made for COMEX

COMEX Submariner, Ref: 5514 between lugs, 5513 inside case back, Circa 1971 and later

Footnotes

Submariner COMEX models, ref.5513 and 5514, were specially developed by Rolex for Compagnie Maritime d'Expertise (COMEX), a professional diving operation for the oil industry. The 5514 model is one of the rarest of all Submariner models, sold exclusively to COMEX and never available to the public. The gas escape valve was designed to release pressure from the case during the diver's decompression periods avoiding damaging the watch.

This particular watch was issued by COMEX and given to Colin Beard after his successful and heroic rescue of two divers after they were pumped the wrong gases while on a dive.

In August 1974, Beard was a novice diver with COMEX UK, assigned to the Transworld 58, a semi-submersible drill rig operating in the North Sea for Hamilton Brothers Oil & Gas. Diving operations were carried out at extreme depths of around 78 meters, requiring the use of heliox due to the dangers of nitrogen narcosis and air density at such depths.

One morning, during routine operations, radio contact was lost with two divers inside a diving bell near the seabed. It was feared they had been supplied the wrong breathing gas. With their lives hanging in the balance, Beard - the standby diver - was called to perform a high-risk rescue. When the crane usually used to lower divers into the water was unavailable, he made a 10-meter free jump from the rig deck into the sea, an emergency entry method trained for but never previously used.

Descending quickly, Beard reached the bell and found one diver slumped on the floor with his legs in the water preventing the hatch from being closed. Realizing he couldn't fit into the bell with his gear, Beard removed his scuba set and entered the bell holding his breath, cautiously testing the atmosphere, which thankfully had been corrected from the surface minutes before.

Inside, he pulled the unconscious diver back in, sealed the hatch, and signalled for recovery. On ascent, unable to find his scuba gear and having missed the required decompression stops, Beard clung to the outside of the bell and was immediately placed into emergency decompression upon surfacing. Miraculously, all three divers survived.

For his extraordinary bravery, Beard was promoted and presented with the current watch. A detailed personal account of the rescue is included with this lot along with a vial of the first North Sea oil, kept as a keepsake by Colin Beard along with other interesting ephemera.