The Complete History Of
The Rolex Submariner & SEA-DWELLER
Rolex's Conquest Of The Ocean
Part 14: Dr. Phil Nuytenn
Pioneering DEEP-SEA Explorer
The Real Aquaman
Dr. Phil Nuytenn is a DEEP-SEA pioneer of the highest order and is widely regarded as one of the greatest living ocean explorers. Dr. Nuytenn is a member of The Diving Hall of Fame and is considered to be one of the pioneers of modern commercial diving as well as a substantial force in the creation of new diving technology.
Throughout his forty-year career he has developed revolutionary diving suits, as well as diving vessels and diving systems. His entire career has been predicated on the theme of increasing a diver's safety and exploration depth.
Dr. Phil Nuytenn has a deep appreciation of Rolex history and vintage Rolex watches. As a matter of fact, in the photo above he is sporting his vintage trademark yellow gold Rolex Submariner that he purchased 41 years ago in 1969. His Submariner has a black dial and bezel and nipple indices. Dr. Nuytenn is holding the all-new Rolex DEEP-SEA SEA-DWELLER in his hand as he compares its great-grandfather from 1960.
Dr. Nuytten is pictured above at the 2009 Vintage Rolex Concours Exhibition at Fourtane in Carmel California. Dr. Nuytenn is pictured below with Josh Bonifas of Fourtane and they are carefully examining one of the very few Rolex DEEP-SEA Special Rolex watches that accompanied U.S. Navy's Captain Don Walsh, Ph.D., and Jacques Piccard on the outside of the Bathyscaph Trieste Submersible when it set the all-time depth record by diving 7 miles down into the Marianas Trench 50 Years ago.
Dr. Nuytten was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada and still lives there today. He was a member of the expedition team that was the first to dive into the polar depths of the North Pole 40 years ago–back in 1970–and as we see in the photo before, he is wearing his trademark yellow-gold Rolex Submariner.
Not only did U.S. Navy Captain Don Walsh, Ph.D., and Jacques Piccard make it back safely to the surface from their 35,000 foot (11,000 meter) dive, but the famous Rolex DEEP-SEA Special came up and it was still working perfectly despite the fact it was attached to the outside of the the Bathyscaph Trieste DEEP-SEA Submersible.
Dr. Phil Nuytten serves on the board of The Rolex Awards for Enterprise which supports enterprising individuals who make the world a a better place and you can see a great short film that features the 2008 Selection Committee members by clicking here. The Rolex Awards maintain an excellent blog with articles written by the Rolex Laureates which is very informative.
Dr. Nuytten knows much about developing an enterprise, since he opened a SCUBA shop in 1958 just after he completed high school in Vancouver, Canada. Dr. Nuytten is part mad scientist, and part aqua-man. He is also a music fanatic and loves experimenting with recording his own music and carving. He is also an entrepreneur, marine archeologist and diver. Dr. Phil Nuytenn is pictured bellow in 1992 wearing his Order of British Columbia medal.
Dr. Phil Nuytten is also a strong proponent of Northwest Coast Native art and culture. He wrote a book named "The Totem Carvers" which documented the lives of 3 famous "Kwakwaka" carvers that are know as "wakw" carvers. His book covers the role they played in preserving their native totemic art-forms.
In 2010 we will be doing a podcast interview with Dr. Phil Nuytten on his amazing career achievements which is very, very exciting. In the time I have spent talking with Dr. Phil Nuyten, one thing really stood out in my mind about his character–I noticed he was a perfect gentle man and he was extremely polite and patient.
Dr. Phil Nuytten was also invaluable in contributing significant historical diving background information for the article I completed in my series I am working on named The Complete History Of The Rolex Submariner & SEA-DWELLER. In particular, Dr. Nuytten's contributed amazing, in-depth background information on Part 5: Jacques Cousteau, Emile Gagnan & The Aqua Lung.
In this preview, we are examining just a few of his incredible design, engineering and manufacturing achievements that have allowed man to safely explore the great ocean depths.
Dr. Phil Nuytten owns a company named Nuytco Research that makes these incredible diving machines, and pictured below we see Dr. Nuytten being interviewed in front of one of a one-man submarine named The NewtSub. This is the same one-man sub he is pictured in the photo above.
In the photo below we see Dr. Phil Nuytten in and invention of his named The NewSuit. The NewSuit is basically a one man submarine that allows the diver to go to great depths without having to go through any decompression. Some divers refer to the NewSuit as the Pillsbury Dough Boy Suit–for obvious reasons.
In the photo below we see the NewSuit up close and it has propellors just like a submariner which allow the diver to control depth and direction. The NewSuit is an amazing piece of engineering and in the future we will be learning about it in detail.
Since this is just a preview of the 2010 article on Dr. Phil Nuytten's career achievements we are skipping over many of his amazing inventions, but in this next set of photos we see his Super Aviator he designed for Sub Aviator Systems which is a two-person tandem submersible which literally flies through water similarly to an airplane.
Here is a video of this amazing machine in action:
Table Of Contents