Doxa S.A.
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Doxa S.A. is a well known Swiss company, founded in 1889, that manufactures watches. Doxa is best known for its dive watches.
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[edit] Company History
Doxa, founded in 1889 by George Ducommun, began as a maker of fine dress watches and other timepieces. Over the years, Doxa gained in size and branched out into other timekeeping markets.
One such market was the newly developing automotive and transportation sector. To serve this market, Ducommun developed (and patented) a timepiece with an 8 day power reserve. This movement, created in 1908, was simply called the "8-day" movement. The movement was used in timepieces for railroad employees worldwide as well as by Bugatti in its race cars.
In the late 1960's Doxa realized that diving was becoming more popular. This may have been due to the efforts of Jacques Cousteau and increased general awareness of the sport. Doxa decided to devote resources to create a watch to be used for diving. Tests indicated that an orange face was more visible in murky water. Doxa also consulted with divers, including Cousteau, then chairman of "U.S. Divers," and Claude Wesly (a Cousteau companion and the first man to spend seven days thirty-three feet underwater). A staff of engineers and professional divers was assembled to create a watch with features important to the diving industry. This led to the world's first commercial dive watch, the Doxa Sub300t. The Sub300t was purchased in quantity by U.S. Divers, who resold the watch in the United States. It was an instant hit with divers and quickly sold out upon its introduction.
The Doxa Sub300t features an orange face to make it more visible in the water. It has a rotating bezel with the official US Navy air dive table for no-decompression dives engraved onto its surface. The watch could be used to calculate decompression times, and other information useful to divers. It was rated to work 300 meters below sea level, and later versions were introduced that could work up to 750 meters below sea level.
Other watchmakers then followed with similar bezels, as well as colorful and bright faces.
Soon after the introduction of the Sub300t, the Swiss watch industry was hard-hit economically by the quartz watch revolution. Accurate, reliable and small timepieces could now be made without the expensive mechanical movements that the Swiss specialized in constructing. In response, Doxa joined a group of Swiss watchmakers to consolidate resources. This eventually failed and Doxa, after being sold, ceased operations in about 1980.
Recently, Doxa has been revived by the Jenny family of Switzerland, who owns the brand. Since August 2002, Doxa has introduced re-editions of its well known watches and timepieces in limited quantities. Many are faithful to their original models in design and construction, and all use Swiss movements.
[edit] Doxa Innovations
- First Commercial dive watch, Sub300t in 1967.
- First watch with a rotating bezel to compute no-decompression times, Sub 300t, 1967.
- 8 Day Movement, 1908.
- Helium release valve; first watch with a helium release valve. In certain diving situations, helium can penetrate the watch seals and cause a pressure buildup in the watch, eventually blowing the crystal off the watch face. Doxa, in conjunction with Rolex, invented and introduced the first dive watches with a helium release valve, which prevented this helium buildup. While this was a major advance at the time, few actual watches with this feature were produced. Doxa introduced the Sub300t Conquistador in 1969 featuring a helium release valve. Rolex introduced this feature into its Sea-Dweller watch in 1971. Omega also eventually introduced a helium release valve, in its Seamaster watch.
[edit] Pop Culture
Although Cousteau was often pictured wearing a black faced Doxa Sub300t Sharkhunter, and Robert Redford wore a Sub600t Sharkhunter in the 1975 film Three Days of the Condor, Doxa's main entrance into pop culture was through another celebrity.
The Dirk Pitt series of novels, written by diver/novelist Clive Cussler featured a main character (Dirk Pitt) who is often mentioned as wearing an orange Doxa dive watch. Cussler, himself a diver, was given a Sub300t when he quit his job at a dive shop to write novels. He liked the watch so much that it was a feature of the main character. Capitalizing on the popularity of these novels, Doxa offers "Dirk Pitt" and "Clive Cussler" editions of its watches. Matthew McConaughey, playing Dirk Pitt in the 2005 film Sahara (based on the book of the same name), wore a Reedition model SUB600T Professional. This watch is a reissue of the famous orange Doxa Sub300t Professional.
[edit] Doxa Naming Conventions
Doxa's dive watches adhere to the following naming conventions.
- Professional refers to an orange faced dive watch
- Sharkhunter refers to a black faced dive watch
- Searambler refers to a silver (metallic) faced dive watch
- Caribbean refers to a blue faced dive watch
- Divingstar refers to a yellow faced dive watch
- Conquistador refers to a watch with a helium release valve
[edit] List of Doxa Watches and Timepieces
- Sub300T
- Sub200 T-Graph
- 8-Days
- 8-Days re-edition
- Sub250t Reedition Sharkhunter (introduced 2002, limited edition)
- Sub300t Reedition Professional (introduced 2002, limited edition of 1000 units sold)
- Sub300t Reedition Sharkhunter (introduced 2002, limited edition of 1000 units sold)
- Sub300t Reedition Seahunter (introduced 10/2002, limited edition of 1000 units sold)
- Sub300t Reedition Divingstar (introduced 2002, limited edition of 1000 units sold)
- Sub600t Professional (introduced 2004, limited edition of 3000 units sold)
- Sub600t Professional "DIRK PITT" (introduced 2005 with the Sahara Movie Release, part of the limited edition of 3000 SUB600T Professional units sold)
- Sub600t Sharkhunter (introduced 2004, limited edition of 3000 units sold)
- Sub600t Divingstar (introduced 2005, limited edition of 100 units sold)
- Sub750t Professional (introduced 07/2005, limited edition of 5000 units)
- Sub750t Sharkhunter (introduced 09/2005, limited edition of 5000 units)
- Sub750t Caribbean (released 09/2005, limited edition of 250 units sold)
- Deco
- Flieger II
- Sub 600 T-Graph (introduced 11/2005, limited edition of 250 units).
[edit] External links
- Doxa S.A. web site Doxa S.A. official site.
- Watchuseek forums Doxa S.A. official forum.
- Doxa300t.com Doxa fan site with watch reviews/comparisons, forum, other information.
- Frappr Map Frappr interactive map of worldwide Doxa Owners
- Seahunter Frappr Map Frappr interactive map of worldwide Sub300T Seahunter Doxa Owners
- Doxa Article Article on Doxa and its history
