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James Cameron’s documentary of his yearlong trip to the abyss, Deepsea Challenge 3D, premiered to crowds at the US a week. And as sponsor of the singular experience and intrepid underwater companion, Rolex has established a new version of its Oyster Perpetual Deepsea diver’s watch using a symbolic D-Blue dial.
It will come as no surprise that the director of sea dramas like The Abyss and Titanic – the highest-grossing picture of its day, only to be outdone by some of his inventions, Avatar – is obsessed with the deep blue.
Cameron’s most up-to-date documentary chronicles the preparations and construction of this miniature submersible for his 2012 voyage to”the last great frontier of this planet”. Filmed at almost 11,000m below the sea, in the deepest point of the world’s oceans known as the Mariana Trench, Cameron extols the beauty of the profound and marvels in the”alien world” before him. “Am I a filmmaker who does exploration work on the side,” he asks during the documentary,”or am I an explorer who does filming the side?”
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Existential doubts apart, Cameron was accompanied in his one-man submersible – his”metal coffin” – by three specially designed Rolex Deepsea models. At depths that could home Mount Everest with room to spare, Cameron shot half an hour of footage together with eight high-definition cameras. Outside, attached to the hull of the sub floor, three muscular 51.4millimeter Rolex diving beasts withstood pressures up to 12 tonnes and surfaced hammering. The ensuing Oyster watch would develop into the world’s first patented, totally watertight watch. The London stenographer emerged after 15 freezing hours in the water with her Oyster at perfect condition.
A pioneer in the conquest of depths, the 1926 Rolex Oyster view was followed closely by professional diver’s watches such as the Oyster Perpetual Submariner (1953), the Sea-Dweller (1967) and the Rolex Deepsea (2008), that has become an iconic version among divers.
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The most gorgeous D-Blue dial on this most current Rolex Deepsea watch evokes the shifting colours of their water during Cameron’s solo descent. Graduating from a brilliant azure blue at the top of the dial, the color intensifies and darkens into a bottomless black symbolizing the abyss.
Like its 1967 predecessor, this new Rolex Deepsea watch features a patented helium escape valve – a miniature decompression room for the watch that’s basic for deep-sea dives.
Equipped with a distinctive Ringlock system along with a 5mm-thick sapphire crystal, the latest Rolex Oyster Perpetual Deepsea watch is built to withstand massive pressures exerted by water at depths of 3,900m, that is approximately equivalent to placing an object of three tonnes on the watch.
Another innovative feature is the Chromalight screen on the dial, which allows the indices, hands and zero marker on the bezel to glow with a supernatural blue light for twice as long as standard luminescent stuff – more than enough light to spot these strange creatures as they float past your porthole.