When my dad told me he’d heard that the Rolex store in the mall near my office was going to be exhibiting the watch James Cameron took with him to the bottom of the ocean, my first thought was, “So what?”

Don’t misunderstand, I’ve got nothing against Cameron. As I said last year in my blog post about his record-breaking dive, l find him an admirable figure in many ways, in spite of his reputed arrogance. But I didn’t see the point of going into some hoity-toity temple for overpriced baubles where security guards would eyeball me from the moment I crossed the threshold because I’m so obviously not a member of an income bracket that has any business being in a place like that, just so I could torment myself with visions of some rich bastard’s fancy bling that will forever be beyond my financial reach. Not that I have any issues with economic inequality.

But of course, I misunderstood what the object on display actually was. This thing wasn’t Cameron’s personal wristwatch. It was in fact a one-of-a-kind timepiece called the Rolex Deepsea Challenge, which rode on the outside of Cameron’s submersible during its trip seven miles straight down into the abyss. In other words, this watch was subjected to the full hazards of the least accessible, most inhospitable point on the planet Earth: water temperature barely above freezing, and mind-boggling pressure that Cameron measured at 16,285 pounds per square inch. I don’t think it would be an understatement to call this thing a masterpiece of engineering and, well… that’s different from just a bauble, isn’t it? You don’t often get the chance to stand inches away from something that’s been on an adventure like that and come back to tell the tale. So a week ago Monday, the last day this precious artifact was going to be here in Salt Lake City, curiosity grabbed hold of me and I decided on the spur of the moment to take a little detour during my afternoon constitutional from my office on the 13th Floor.

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