Update: July 17. I will be working on updating this amazing story over the next several days until it is done. I am doing this in celebration of Céline Cousteau launching her Kickstarter campaign on July 19th for her amazing new Documentary named Tribes on The Edge.
Introduction
When is started Jake's Rolex World eleven years ago, my goal was to capture as much of Rolex's amazing history as possible, as well as to separate the fact from the fiction on falsely perpetuated myths. At the time I could not help but notice there were two people who seemed to not exist on the web, and that was Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf and explorer, Jacques-Yves Cousteau. With Hans Wilsdorf, there were only two photos of him on the entire web, the one with the crazy hair and the one when he was a young man. This struck me as being almost a crime against humanity as I realized he was arguably one of the most successful entrepreneurs in history.
The second person missing from the internet was Jacques-Yves Cousteau, which struck me as being really strange since he was so popular during my childhood. I set out on a mission to extensively document both Hans Wilsdorf and Jacques-Yves Cousteau's career achievements and ended up creating the single largest stories on each man, which included the largest repositories on photos from both men.
When I first interviewed Céline Cousteau she asked me about her grandfather and his relationship with Rolex. I took her on a tour of his Rolex history, and then when I interviewed Jean-Michel Cousteau who is Jacques-Yves Cousteau's son, he did not seem that familiar with his father's history with Rolex. That is one of the reasons I decided to write this story, so as to put in one cohesive place a story that chronicles the Cousteau legacy and at the same time showcases in a comprehensive manner Jacques-Yves Cousteau's relationship with Rolex.
The First Family Of Exploration
Céline Cousteau
I recently interviewed Céline Cousteau and we had the most amazing conversation about her career achievements as well as discussing the entire Cousteau family today—were they are, and what they are doing...I believe it is safe to say that the torch has been passed to the next generation who are all doing amazing things to protect earth...
In the image below from the December 2013 cover of Town & Country Magazine we see Céline Cousteau with her brother Fabian Cousteau.
Return To The Amazon
Céline Cousteau's grandfather lead his team and brought the Calpyso on an expedition in 1982 down the Amazon river.
Mission Amazon ended up being a 5 part series that aired on ABC. Ted Turner financed the expedition and Jean-Michel helped produce it. Below is the original TV trailer for Cousteau's Amazon Expedition.
In the photo below we see Céline Cousteau piloting her zodiac down the Amazon with her grandfather Jacques-Yves Cousteau's Calypso in the background. Céline and I discussed her first trip down the Amazon which her father Jean-Michel Cousteau took her on with her grandfather and she mentioned how engaged and fascinated she was with expedition and in particular meeting the native people. This resulted in her returning decades later with her father Jean-Michel on an expedition he did to return to the Amazon.
on Expedition with her father and grandfather
In 2013 Céline Cousteau returned a third time to the Amazon to start filming her own documentary on the native tribes of the Amazon and their plight. This exciting documentary will be released soon as she it still putting the finishing touches on he documentary.
ABC News just published this story about Céline Cousteau's upcoming project and also mentioned her upcoming Kickstarter campaign which is scheduled to launch later this week on July 19, 2018. BTW, the Nell Newman Foundation is supporting Céline Cousteau's upcoming documentary named Tribes On The Edge with a donation.
ABC News just published this story about Céline Cousteau's upcoming project and also mentioned her upcoming Kickstarter campaign which is scheduled to launch later this week on July 19, 2018. BTW, the Nell Newman Foundation is supporting Céline Cousteau's upcoming documentary named Tribes On The Edge with a donation.
Céline Cousteau is pictured below with her legendary grandfather, Jacque-Yves Cousteau when she was a little girl. After having interviewed Céline I could not help but notice she shares her grandfather's Spirit of Inquiry and Exploration.
Below we see a trailer for Céline Cousteau's upcoming documentary named "Vale do Javari: Tribes on the Edge." Céline wrote an article about this upcoming documentary which is very interesting.
The Amazon River as seen in the photo below is the largest river in the world by discharge, and at 4,350 miles in length is filled with mystic surprises which include close to 3000 known species of fish that live in the river. Also, 20% of earths oxygen is generated by the vast Amazon rain-forest in Brazil.
Jean-Michel Cousteau
Leading Ocean Environmentalist
Leading Ocean Environmentalist
I recently had the absolute pleasure of speaking in detail with Jean Michel Cousteau who is the head of OceanFutures.org. Jean-Michel Cousteau is Royalty in the world of exploration as he is the son of the greatest explorer in history, Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Jean-Michel and I took a stroll down memory lane as we discussed so many different aspects of his history as well as his father's history.
In the photo below we see Jean-Michel Cousteau with his father Jacques, mother Simone, and brother Philippe in the 1940s.
In the famous photo below we see Jacques-Yves, Philippe and Jean-Michel Cousteau.
Jean-Michel Cousteau is in the photo below that was inspired by the family portrait above, with his children Fabian and Céline Cousteau.
Jacques-Yves Coustea
Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who is Jean-Michel's father and Céline Cousteau's grandfather is the greatest explore that has ever lived—bar none. I remember when I was a small child that every Sunday night my family would gather in front of the TV set to watch "The Underwater World Of Jacques Cousteau" which ran from 1968 to 1976. On this amazing show Captain Cousteau and his sons would take on board his famous Calypso ship to explore all over the world.
The First Submariner
Have you ever wondered why the Rolex Submariner is named Submariner? Submariner is commonly pronounced Suhb-mar-uh-ner, but it's proper pronunciation is Suhb-muh-ree-ner. Meaning the watch was designed for a Submarine Captain, NOT a Mariner who was Sub-par. It is a fact that Jacque-Yves Cousteau worked with Rolex on the original Submariner. From all my deep research I would argue that the Rolex Submariner was inspired by and named after Jacques-Yves Cousteau and here is why:
In December of 1953 Jacques Cousteau comandeered the F.N.R.S III and took her down 4000 feet. Keep in mind Jacques Cousteau took the F.N.R.S III Submersible down twenty-five times deeper than a standard submarine could go at that time in history.
The F.N.R.S. III Submersible in 1953 in front of the Calypso
August Piccard and his son Jacques Piccard, with their Bathyscaphe Trieste years later would continue to set all time deep diving records. Just to be clear, Auguste Piccard's son was also name Jacques. The photo above is NOT of his son Jacques Piccard, but of Jacques-Yves Cousteau.
Jacques Yves-Cousteau is considered to be the father of Scuba Diving and modern underwater exploration, and he worked with Rolex in the early 1950s to develop the Rolex Submariner as seen on his wrist below in 1953.
I believe Rolex named the Submariner as an homage to Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Jacques-Yves Cousteau was close friends with Rolex Director, Rene-Paul Jeanneret, who he worked with on the development of the Rolex 'Submariner' Diving Watch. I believe Rolex named the Submariner as a tribute to Jacques-Yves Cousteau, and I believe "Submariner" was intended to mean, "Mariner who explores below (Sub) the Sea, or pilots a Submarine". It is a important to also take into consideration in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Submarines were a huge deal. All these amazing Submarine events occurred long before President Eisenhower established NASA in 1958. Captain Cousteau was as close as the world came to a real Buck Rogers in the 21st Century...
As I mentioned earlier Jean-Michel Cousteau's father, Jacques-Yves Cousteau was the greatest explorer in history—bar none. Jacques-Yves was instrumental in the development of the Rolex Submariner, and Jean-Michel and I discussed the image below taken in 1953 when his father was testing Rolex Submariner prototypes with his team aboard the Calypso in the Mediterranean.
The close up photo above of Jacques-Yves Cousteau shows him wearing an early Rolex Submariner with pencil hands that looks like the similar vintage model seen below.
The document below confirms that Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his team were testing Rolex Submariner prototypes in early 1953.
The photo below was taken in 1968, and it shows U.S. Navy Doctor George Bond being interviewed with his close associate, Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who is the greatest explorer in history. In the interview, they were discussing U.S. Navy SEALAB III.
"What is a scientist after all? It is a curious man looking through a keyhole, the keyhole of nature, trying to know what's going on." –Jacques-Yves Cousteau
The First SEA-DWELLER's In History
Have you ever wondered why the Rolex Submariner is named the Submariner? Or where the Rolex SEA-DWELLER got its name from?
Albert Falco and Claude Wesly of the Calypso diving team (pictured below wearing red caps) swam into history when they became the first "Oceanauts [French]" or "Aquanauts [American]" or "SEA-DWELLERS [ROLEX]" to live or "DWELL" under the sea. Also in the photo below we see Jacques Cousteau visiting with Falco and Wesly inside the Conshelf I habitat.
Project Conshelf
From Submariner to SEA-DWELLER
In September 1962, Jacques Cousteau immersed his Calypso crew into their most ambitious adventure to date known as the Conshelf Project. The Conshelf project was the brainchild of a U.S. Navy Medical Corps., Captain named Dr. George Bond. Dr. Bond conceived a new method of diving known as the "saturation method" which became know as "saturation diving."
Saturation diving created an underwater habitat where the divers could live in an underwater house/structure/habitat so they could work on the sea floor, without having to decompress by coming up to the ocean's surface after each dive.
Dr. Bond submitted his plan to build this underwater habitat for saturated divers to the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Navy initially rejected the idea–so Dr. Bond submitted his idea to Jacques Cousteau and his Calypso diving team–and after careful evaluation Cousteau decided to undertake the project.
Conshelf I
Conshelf I [September 1962] Location: Frioul Island, Marseille, France
Conshelf I got underway in September of 1962, and according to Jacques Cousteau, the objective was "Two men living for one week in a small building at a depth of 37 feet and working several hours a day at 65 feet." The Conshelf I structure was essentially a huge drum about the size of an industrial shipping container that was ballasted with an open hatch for the divers to enter and exit the underwater house.
In the photo below we see Conshelf I's barrel shaped habitat being tested for leakage before being submerged for the experiment. I may be wrong, but I think I recognize fellow DEEP-SEA Submariner, Jacques Piccard up on the top deck, leaning back, in the white shirt with dark slacks filming with a camera in his hand.
Jacques Coustea previously worked with Jacques Piccard on the Bathyscaphe Project, and would work with Piccard again in 1964 on a new floating laboratory nicknamed "Mysterious Island" and again in 1965 from April 13 to May 10 on a geophysical and acoustical mission along the south coast of France.
It is kind of shocking we have never seen a photo of the two Jacques together, but this may be the first one. Cousteau, of course, is located in the bottom right hand corner of the photo on the deck of the Calypso.
So not only was Jacques-Yves Cousteau the inspiration for the original Rolex Submariner, but he was also the inspiration for the SEA-DWELLER as well. I spoke with Jean-Michel Cousteau about Operation Conshelf I, and he told me he dove down to visit Albert Falco in the underwater habitat as it was only 35 feet below sea level, where Falco was "Dwelling in the Sea."
In the photo below taken later in Jacques-Yves Cousteau's life we seen him wearing a Rolex SEA-DWELLER. Jacques-Yves Cousteau was and remains the living personification and embodiment of both the Rolex Submariner and SEA-DWELLER.
The Calypso was extremely well equipped with innovative technology to capture the mysteries of the ocean including the SP-350 diving saucer submarine that Captain Cousteau designed, which is pictured below as it is prepared for work in the Aegean Sea.
“To Live on the Land We Must Learn from the Sea”
–John Denver (Calypso)
Richard Hyman took the photo below onboard the Calypso when they were filming in the Belize Barrier Reef and John Denver gave an impromptu concert for Captain Cousteau and his wife Simone who was commonly referred to as “La Bergère”, which when translated from French to English means "The Shepherdess."
