Rolex and Comex push further the limits of presssure together

Rolex and Comex push further the limits of presssure together

Comex’s technical teams have been working with Rolex for many years. They design and maintain special automated pressure testing machines. These machines are used to validate the waterproofness and resistance of the famous Rolex watches.

With more than 50 years of collaboration since 1971, the Comex team accompanies the famous watchmaker Rolex towards a technicality that seems limitless. In order to meet these challenges, and in accordance with very demanding specifications, we pool our skills by intervening in the design of special machines, by ensuring the maintenance of equipment integrated into the overall control line, while relying on our strong experience in controlled pressure environments.

For the launch of the new Deepsea Challenge watch, in partnership with Comex, Rolex has developed an ultra-high pressure tank to test the resistance of its watches.

The Deepsea Challenge is an adaptation of the experimental watch developed for James Cameron’s 10,908-metre (35,787 feet) descent on 26 March 2012. It is the fruit of Rolex’s extensive expertise and know-how in the world of divers’ watches. Made of RLX titanium and equipped with the helium escape valve and the Ringlock system, it is capable of accompanying divers in any environment – during freedives, submersible dives or in hyperbaric chambers.

Rolex’s patented Ringlock system equips all of the brand’s divers’ watches designed for extreme depths.
An extension of the research dedicated to the waterproofness of the Oyster, this system is a reinforced case architecture comprising a thick, slightly domed sapphire crystal, a nitrogen-alloyed steel compression ring, and a case back made from RLX titanium. This construction allows the Deepsea Challenge to withstand the pressure exerted by water at 11,000 metres (36,090 feet), the depth to which it is guaranteed waterproof. In partnership with Comex (Compagnie Maritime d’Expertises), Rolex developed an ultra-high-pressure tank to test the waterproofness of the Deepsea Challenge. Each watch is tested, as required by the standards for divers’ watches, with an additional safety margin of 25 per cent, meaning that it is subjected to a pressure equivalent to that exerted at a depth of 13,750 metres (45,112 feet).