Two Rolex Submariner watches that currently belong to underwater cinematographer and producer Al Giddings, and accompanied him on 12 of his 17 descents to the Titanic, go under the hammer in the coming weeks – as does another Submariner that belonged to the Cousteau family.
Sotheby’s New York is set to sell Giddings’ Submariners in early December and, because of their exceptional “underwater exposure record”, the auction house reckons the pair are “possibly the most authentic tool watches to appear at auction”.
Over a 40-year career Giddings, now 87, became a four-time Emmy award-winner and captured many iconic underwater images, including the unforgettable shot of Titanic’s bow.
His 1680 ‘Red’ Submariner from around 1976 is a 40mm stainless-steel 1570 caliber automatic watch with black dial and screw-down caseback engraved ‘Al Giddings’. It is depth-rated to 200m.
The US diver was known for developing his own innovative cameras, lighting and optical systems, working with National Geographic, the BBC and ocean explorers such as Titanic discoverer Robert Ballard. Demand from major Hollywood studios meant that he also became associated with James Bond movies including For Your Eyes Only and Never Say Never Again and James Cameron-directed classics such as The Deep, The Abyss and Titanic.
Sotheby’s says that photographs of Giddings show him wearing the watch “on set with Sean Connery and Kim Bassinger, teaching James Cameron how to communicate under water, climbing out of ALVIN, the submarine used to discover the Titanic, and hanging out of helicopters camera in hand.”
It was also on his wrist while filming the IMAX documentary Titanic: Treasure Of The Deep in 1992, which led to his work with Cameron.
“The appropriate diving watch was the thing to have, and this watch performed flawlessly for all those years,” said Giddings, “both under water in different pressure environments and different submersibles: on Titanic, on the Andrea Doria, shipwrecks of Truk Lagoon, Bikini Atoll, the North Pole, Antarctica. There really was no competition; it was simply the best.”
The Golden Rolex
The other Giddings timepiece being offered for sale is a 1680/8 “Nipple Dial” Submariner, an 18-karat yellow-gold Rolex with matching bracelet from around 1984 that is seen onscreen in Titanic.
T Walker Lloyd, a diver who worked for Rolex, was a friend of Giddings, and asked him if the brand might use some of his photographs of Dr Sylvia Earle for a promotional campaign when she became a Rolex Ambassador. Giddings had been documenting the work of the marine biologist and oceanographer for several years.
When Lloyd later asked Giddings what Rolex owed him for the images, he replied that he was happy to support Earle and her work. “About a month went by, and a box came in the mail that just said: ‘Enjoy, T Walker Lloyd’,” said Giddings. “And it was this gold Rolex. I was in shock. I think at the time they were $10,000!”
Giddings wore the watch sparingly but in 1997, while working as co-producer and director of underwater photography on Titanic, he obliged when Cameron felt that a gold Rolex would look appropriate on the wrist of actor Bill Paxton, in his role as dive director Brock Lovett.
Months later Giddings started wondering what had happened to his watch and called Cameron’s office. “And a week or two later it came in the mail with a thank-you note, from Fox,” he said.
The two watches are being sold with a selection of signed memorabilia, including movie posters, photo-prints of the Titanic, DVD and book. The estimate for the Red Submariner is US $20,000-40,000 (£15,400-30,800) and for the gold Rolex $30,000-60,000 (£23,000-45,900). The two go under the hammer on 6 December in Sotheby’s “Important Watches” sale.
The Cousteau Submariner
Before the Giddings watches go on sale, on the other side of the USA in Texas a 1665 Rolex Sea-Dweller Submariner from 1969 that belonged to Jacques Cousteau’s late son Philippe Cousteau also looks set to generate interest. This is not only because the owner was a famed diver in his own right but because his father had a hand in designing the Submariner.
Philippe Cousteau was, like Giddings, a cinematographer among his many other accomplishments and specialised in environmental issues. He died in 1979 at the age of 38 when his flying boat crashed into the Tagus river in Portugal.
The 610m-rated watch was originally owned by Cousteau and since 1973 has been in the possession of the current owner, who received it as a gift to mark a deep dive in the Mediterranean.
It is known as a “double red line” model, because of the pink hue that results from the fact that early models were not printed with a white background. Only later were they double-printed to make the red stand out. Also reflecting that it is an early model, the watch has a small helium release valve.
Dallas Auction Gallery has set an estimate of US $50,000-75,000 (£38,500-57,400) on the timepiece when it goes on sale on 14 November. In 2014 a Rolex Sea-Dweller that had belonged to Philippe Cousteau sold in New York for $183,750.
Also on Divernet: THOUSANDS OF UK SHIPWRECK ITEMS GO ON SALE, BIDS FOR ‘GRAIL’ DIVE-WATCH START AT $50K, RESCUE DIVER’S BOND-STYLE ROLEX FETCHES £40K, MARY ROSE DIVER TO SELL RARE OMEGA
