During the early days of deep sea exploration, Rolex worked with a number of experts in the field, including the Marseille-based maritime company, COMEX (Compagnie Maritime d’Expertises). Rolex exclusively supplied different Submariner and Sea-Dweller models to their specialist divers with most watches marked ‘COMEX’ on the dial and numbered on the case back. They were exclusively reserved for the firm and never available to the public for purchase.

Released in 1988, the reference 16600 enjoyed a long production run of 20 years and was discontinued in 2008. However, it was not until 1992 that the reference 16600 was utilized by COMEX. Based on research, the reference 16600 was made with 200 examples featuring the “COMEX” logo on the dial between 1992 – 1997, with its batch number starting from 3200 and ending at 3400 (The present example bearing number 3379).

This important and complete example of a COMEX reference 16600 belonged to Theo Mavrostomos, the holder of the diving depth record – reaching 701 meters / 2,299 feet in 1992 in a simulated dive. After this feat, he officially became an ambassador for Rolex. Dubbed “the deepest man in the world”, Mavrostomos first joined the French Navy in 1970, leaving in 1973 to pursue a career with COMEX where he became a saturation diver. Beginning with Hydra I in 1968, COMEX began experimenting with heliox and hydreliox for saturation diving, which culminated in Hydra X in 1992 and Theo’s achievement at 701 meters, which earned him the French Order of Merit in 1997.