Rolex Submariner

1969 marked the year of the crowning achievement of mankind. On July 21, American astronaut Neil Armstrong entered into history when he became the first man to step on the surface of the moon. While Armstrong was taking his historic walk, something equally monumental was happening in the depths of the Gulf Stream. Oceanographer Jacques Piccard had already plunged to the deepest point of the ocean, the Challenger Deep, in 1960. His vessel was the bathyscaphe Trieste, which was designed by his father Auguste. As Jacques made history by traveling to the deepest part of the ocean, his father did so in the air, reaching a record altitude of 51,775 in 1931 in a special pressurized gondola of his own construction. Auguste realized that, with slight modifications, the balloon cockpit—which was designed to withstand the extreme pressure at high altitudes—would also withstand the punishing pressure of the deep ocean. The bathyscaphe, first built in 1946, saw use by oceanographers like Jacques Co