Great story
When you worked as an underwater welder did you see what the other divers were wearing? Did you also come across other Ploprof's or 1000m Omegas?

 

This project - to sell the watch - began over on the Rolex forum site (I own a Rolex DJ) until Darlinboy led me here. To answer your question, this watch was "kind of" thrust upon me. Here is a post I copied from the Rolex/omega forum that explains how I "bought" this watch.

"Let me add to the story about the watch. About 1976 or 1977, my open water scuba certification was taught by Don Brod himself and Mike Lippy, both of them were like "Sea Hunt" on steroids, just incredible divers. After the class, I walked into Don's shop to buy some scuba gear and he was the only one in the shop. I had gotten some nice money for a job I did in Sweden and told him I wanted a complete scuba kit with all Scubapro equipment. He said he would set up an interest free "equipment" account if I helped with his dive classes. "Just pay something every month and I'll give you credit for all the time you put in helping me with classes." I said OK and the last thing he put in the bag that day was the Omega PloProf. He said you need the best watch to be safe with all the diving you will probably do. I didn't even know what an Omega watch cost, I doubt I had even heard of Omega back in those days. I thought the price was about $600 but I've slept since then and I might be wrong. I think the watch cost more than all my scuba diving equipment and Scubapro was EXPENSIVE gear. What I do remember was that is was the biggest, baddest watch I had ever seen in my life!! Little did I know that day that he was right. That watch went with me on underwater diving assignments and just pleasure diving all over the world.
A writer from Austin - Stephen Harrigan - and I went to Florida for Esquire magazine to do a deep diving story on a guy named Hal Watts who, at that time, held the depth record using a scuba tank. We had to pass muster with Watts so he took us on some quick 90 foot dives into some sink holes south of Orlando. Then the final test was diving to 190 feet (on compressed air mind you) and reading the odometer on a car that was dumped into a VERY DEEP sinkhole. We got the number right and then we spent a few more days diving into some deep, crystal clear caves with Watts and spending considerable time recompressing in shallow water. Having the "chunk of iron" on my wrist sure made things easier.

(Again that story was originally posted on the Rolex site in the Omega forum.)
So I wasn't really into watches back then, but luckily I bought a great watch without knowing it. Later on when I was a bit more aware of watches, I seem to recall that most of the divers I encountered used Seiko underwater models. They were fairly reliable and not too hard on the wallet.

On the question about Oceaneering, I was not a welder for them but Ron Coley - the underwater cinematographer - and I were hired by the company to photograph some of their underwater welders. When I was diving and switching cameras and lights and concentrating on photography, you were on the "depth clock" so I never noticed what kind of watches those professional divers used. It would not surprise me if those professional divers used very high quality watches as their decompression needed to be staged very accurately based on the maximum depth and the Navy dive tables (decompression tables). Accurate depth gauges and watches were absolutely essential for underwater working divers, but sorry I didn't notice what timepieces were being used.
OC

 

Stewart - I got a journalism degree at Del Mar Jr College in Corpus Christi, Texas; got a photojournalism degree at the University of Texas at Austin, and freelanced as a photographer/writer for 15 years or so. I got some decent paychecks OCCASIONALLY and was published in a few publications that paid well. But for the most part, like most freelance journalists, I didn't make that much money, and what spare funding I had went into photography equipment or film (yes, this was long before digital cameras had even been dreamed of!) I got into diving when my best friend from Corpus moved to Austin and that led me eventually to underwater photography because I found out rather quickly there were no other photographers in Texas doing underwater photography! I never made that much money but I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything.

OC

 

Thank you for the comment Mothra. And you are right, I have led a very lucky life.
OC

 

To the left here is my scuba pro 500, I did most of my diving with an Omega SMP, However it has always been a back up for a dive computer, which I would not dive without.

 

Dive computers weren't around back when I was spending a lot of time underwater, but I did buy one of the Scubapro "bladder" recompression meters, which were not computer driven. They had a bladder that was suppose to simulate body cells absorbing nitrogen and you had to be sure the needle stayed out of the red if you were decompressing. Right after I bought it, the word got around that some divers had been hurt by using it so I didn't use it much. Wish I still had it, it was a real oddity.
I agree with you that in today's world, a dive computer is the way to go with a good watch as backup.
Good diving...
OC

 

That's a beautiful watch. Great story. Cheers! You might find it quite a pleasant surprise if you check how much these things go for

 

Rats. I thought this might be the definitive shot of me with the PloProf at Jacobs Well but, alas, you can barely make out the watch under my wet suit sleeve. I don't know who took it but it was from a load of black and white film from one of my cameras while working on some photography for various magazines. I think this was sometime in 1979.
By the way Jacobs Well was another cave I dove a lot in. It's located outside Wimberley Texas and I believe 5 or 6 divers have drowned in that cave. I provided photos for a Texas Monthly story (Steve Harrigan was again the writer on that piece) but I also wrote a story later on the cave for the January 1981 issue of Oceans. That piece was picked up by Reader Digest in their July issue of 1981. (That was a good year for paychecks )
Why so much interest? Because this was part of body rescue operation in search of two divers who drowned deep in the cave. To top it off, one of the rescue divers earlier that morning had almost drowned too, after being trapped by a rock slide in a passage at 90 feet that was so narrow, you had to remove your scuba tank, squirm through the opening, then put the tank back on in the next chamber. That, my friends, is not recommended even for the best cave divers and it almost killed an ex-Navy diver. He survived but barely, and made national headlines. A professional diving crew with surface supplied air equipment spent weeks looking for the original two victims but never found them. A while later, I was part of a team that went back down and sealed off the narrow entrance with a bunch of concrete bags and rebar. A few months later the area got a lot of rain and we found out the "barrier" we had installed had been blown out of the cave by the force of the water flow.
I just reread that article I wrote and it reminded me how queesy I felt diving that day knowing there were decomposing bodies deeper in Jacobs Well.
What's also interesting is that the water is spring fed, crystal clear and one of the safest cave dives there is IF, and this is a big IF, you stay above 90 feet and don't even think about squirming through that narrow opening. Beyond that, you were tempting the grim reaper.

 

By the way, I notice in this photo that I am wearing the first "dive computer", the sardine can like gauge to the right of my Nikonos. It was no computer, per say, but used a bladder that simulated nitrogen absorption in the body. They were later proven to be unsafe (if my memory is correct). Notice too that I usually used a back-mounted buoyancy compensator to help make handling of all my photo gear easier on the front part of my body.

 

Hi ocgarza,

Although many here have said that you final price selling fee on E-Bay would be 10% that is not exactly true well at least not here in the UK as it is 10% but with a maximum fee of £250. I would say your PloProf will sell for quite a bit more that £2500 or the equivalent in $ and would be very surprised if E-Bay in the USA didn't have the same max selling fee in place to.

Yours is indeed a great original PloProf with loads of character to it and I would love to own it myself but unfortunately importing it to the UK would add yet another 20% to its price but I'm sure you would have plenty of bidders eager to get yours, best of luck with your sale.

Marc

 

Marc, thanks for the message. I'll be doing a bit of homework on the finances of the sale and I'll check into any EBay limits.
OC

 

I'm loving reading the little snippets of stories everyday in this thread. If I had/have a fraction of your diving experiences of be extremely happy.

The last bit reminds me if when I went diving in the cenotes in Mexico a couple of years ago and you come across a large sign after so long which tells you not to go any further due to the number of deaths.

So beautiful but it quickly reminds you how suddenly the situation can change if you're not on your toes.

Great stoeies and a great watch. Thanks!

 

Great post OC, so much more interesting when the history of the watch is unfolded with the history of the man.

Thanks for giving me some of the more pleasurable moments on the interwebs.

Cheers

Jim

PS: My only regret is that I lack the level of funds in my watch account to even come close to your target. Good Luck

 

I was very lucky to have great diving friends that were very creative. Steve Harrigan is literally as good a writer as you will ever read and I have no clue how many hours we spent together, he writing and me documenting his adventures. Ron Coley was a great underwater cinematographer and he and I did non-underwater work in Sweden and Saudi Arabia. He got me into board sailing and all kind of craziness anywhere we went. He and I photographed the first phone book with an underwater cover photo I think. Anyway chasing down photos of watches reminds me of all the great time I spent with special people.

 

And Davidt3449, you are right it does not take long to get into trouble in caves or cenotes. Even very experienced cave divers have become victims and it does not take long.

 

All,
Due to my work schedule and a death in my family, my plans to sell my ploprof were delayed. But I am moving ahead with the sale. It will be on eBay with no reserve. Hope to have everything ready to open the sale by Sunday (Nov 30).
In digging thru some files related to the death of my mother, my wife came across the original instruction manual for the ploprof! I have posted photos of it below. Also, I came across a photo of me with the watch from the 1984-86 period when I worked for the Texas Tourist Development Agency. I am the one of the left with the watch on my arm surrounded by some travel writers I was guiding through the Texas Gulf Coast area.
OC Garza
Victoria, Texas

 

Some recent sales on ebay for this model are:

$5700 - just back from service, looked to be mint condition
$4667 - with bracelet
$4227 - no bracelet

There was also one listed for $6995, but with a make offer and no way to know that sold price.

I did not scan the details to see the condition of the ones that sold in the $4k range.

I certainly will bid on this one and good luck with the sale.

 

Thank you for the comment Taddyangle. The prices seem to have risen just in the past two months when my plans were delayed.
OC

 

PloProf now on EBay! The auction for this watch will begin on Sunday, November 30, 2014 at 8:05pm (Central Standard Time, USA). Ebay item is # 271690304042.
Link to the auction is: http://www.ebay.com/itm/27169030404...l?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=271690304042&_rdc=1Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network