Through his numerous films, documentaries and missions – such as the Oscar-winning The Silent World (1956) – the French oceanographer opened up the undersea world, and the importance of conserving it, to huge global audiences. Image: įew figures loom larger in the world of diving than Jacques-Yves Cousteau. In addition to the elapsed time scale, there was a secondary read-out, on which the diver could read the United States Navy No-Decompression dive chart, an essential tool in pre-dive computer diving.
And finally, the bezel of the SUB 300 looked like nothing that had come before. On top of that, the clasp of the DOXA’s bracelet came with a spring- loaded diver’s extension, a very wearer-friendly solution. Most obviously the orange dial, injecting a welcome dose of colour into the underwater world, the theory being that orange was more visible at depth. And while several of the design features of the watch spoke to the environment in which it was conceived – that broad, cushion-shaped case (made from a single piece of steel), the angular hands and markers, the charmingly floppy ‘beads-of-rice’ bracelet – several features stood out. The SUB 300 was purpose-built, from the ground up, as a dive watch. And with this shift came a boom of specialist dive equipment made with this new breed of sports divers in mind.Īnd this is where DOXA, and their iconic SUB 300 comes in. However, the world of diving was becoming increasingly democratised – improvements in dive gear technology and availability (like the invention of the Aqua-Lung in 1943 and the wetsuit in 1952), along with a corresponding boom in popular culture representations of diving, led to a shift that saw diving become a popular recreational activity.
#VINTAGE DOXA WATCHES PROFESSIONAL#
But these watches are very professional in nature. Out of this grim, murky theatre of war, the fundamentals of what would become the ‘dive watch’ became defined.Īlmost a decade after the war ended, models like the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms (1953) and the Rolex Submariner (1954) became commercially available. In the life or death environment of cutting-edge technology made to sink tonnage of shipping, and the men who wore them, reliability and precision under pressure took on a whole new meaning. While watches made to survive the rigours of the underwater environment existed in the early 1900s – the Rolex Oyster case first made its mark in 1926, and famously crossed the channel on the wrist of Mercedes Gleitze a year later – it wasn’t until the grim necessities of the Second World War that the genesis of the modern dive watch was born. The Doxa 8 Days Manufacture Limited Edition, released in 2014.īut before we go into the specific details in which the iconic DOXA SUB was born, let’s talk a little about the dive watch more broadly.
But DOXA’s main moment didn’t come until some years later, in 1967 to be precise. Georges Ducommun quickly built DOXA into a brand with a strong reputation for reliability and innovation, including their eight-day calibre – patented in 1908 – which became widely used in dash-mounted clocks in automobiles and planes. The first is the late 19th century story of a brand that began, like so many, in the Jura Valley – the heartland of Swiss watchmaking. The history of DOXA is one that’s best told in two chapters. But thankfully, the name persevered, and DOXA is still with us today, and the brand’s future looks bright – almost as bright as their famous orange dials. DOXA, who date their history back to 1889, was almost one of those brands.
#VINTAGE DOXA WATCHES FULL#
The dusty shelves of antique stores and less-trafficked avenues of eBay are full of watch brands whose glory days are well behind them.
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