Doxa Diver / Vintage Watches Wanted -Today !

SELL YOUR DOXA !

Do you have a Doxa Diver/ Vintage watch you want to sell and want to know what you can sell it for ?

You can contact us now via Whattsapp on 07768316371 for a super quick valuation offer to buy.

We are really keen to buy your vintage Doxa watch

Here at watches Of Westminster we have recently bought several Doxa watches ( Diver and Chronograph ) and are interested in to buying more .

Doxa are a little known brand but have interesting and substantial history and do have some value even though collectors have not seemed to have picked up on the brand but then thats the vintage watch market .

Capitalising on past glories “Doxa ” have reissued a number of top selling models but whilst very appealing they are simply trying to sell on past glories and its almost badge

HISTORY OF DOXA

In 1953 the Rolex Submariner and Blancpain Fifty Fathoms paved the way for the most covetable of all luxury watch styles: The Dive Watch. Doxa were founded in 1889, by Georges Ducommun in Le Locle, near the Jura Mountains. In 1967 they created, arguably, the most recognisable of this utilitarian style, the sub 300T. 

Forced to work at an early age due to having 12 siblings and not much income to the household, Georges started his apprenticeship in 1880 at the age of just 12 years old. His hard working attitude and love for mechanics and precision allowed him to gain respect very quickly. He soon became to realise that he had the aptitude and desire to further the advances of the mechanical movements he was repairing and servicing. With such lofty ambitions at an early age Georges realised that he needed to create a platform that would allow him to fulfil his aspirations of watchmaking. So, at the age of 21, he inaugurated “Georges Ducommun, Fabriques Doxa” in 1889.

Doxa is the Greek word for glory. It is not known why he chose this noun for his new business but I can only surmise that this was what he was, rightfully, seeking for his impressive capabilities. At last Georges’ talents were becoming recognised outside of the Jura region. One of his pocket watches was honoured at the “Exposition Universelle at Internationale” during the World’s Fair in Liege, Belgium in 1905. In 1906 an anti-magnetic Doxa won the gold medal at the World’s Fair in Milan.

In 1908 Georges filed a patent for a robust Doxa 8-Day calibre as he realised the growth of the Automobile Industry, in particular endurance racing. This resilient time keeper became standard equipment in all Bugatti race cars and was soon recognised as the industry standard. Ships and aeroplanes soon followed suit with Doxa becoming ubiquitous in nautical and aviation instrument panels. Georges continued to excel in his aspirations to produce accurate and durable timepieces until his death in 1936. His son-in-law, Jaques Nardin (grandson of Ulysse Nardin), took over and maintained a high level of enduring craftmanship. Radical inventions and innovations were aplenty, including alarm watches, ring watches, a pointer date system and a jumping second hand. 

As mentioned above, 1967 was a pivotal year for Doxa when they decided to release their own professional rated Dive Watch. However, this was as good a debut as Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane”. Doxa got it right first time with the assistance of sub-aquatic legend Jaques Cousteau and the US Divers group, for whom he was the chairman.

This conglomerate of horological and deep sea adventurer mindsets were to create the most practical dive watch to date. The Doxa Sub 300T emerged from this perfect unison of aspirations. It was the first dive watch to have an orange dial because it had been realised that this was the most legible colour under water. Along with the black hands, this gave the best contrast. Ironically, Jaques Cousteau chose a black dial, Sharkhunter, SUB300T upon deciding upon utilising the brand for his unparalleled deep sea explorarions. A Cousteau adventurer, Fabien (Grandson of Jacques), did wear the orange dial SUB 300T for his world breaking Mission 31 fete of human endurance and important scientific study, spent in the Aquarius deep sea vessel for 31 days.

The SUB300T was designed with an exclusive rotating bezel that enabled the wearer to calculate decompression times and safe periods between dives. This was also a request of Jacques and the US Diver’s Group. An exclusive saw-tooth edge bezel allowed easy positioning with cumbersome diving gloves on.

In addition to these unique aesthetic aspects the box glass, cushion shaped case and beads of rice bracelet allowed it to become an iconic design.

Today’s sympathetic re-interpretation of the original SUB300T

Believe it or not 1969 Doxa perfected this professional’s wristwatch with a Helium Release Valve. way ahead of omega and Rolex

The Rolex Seadweller is often mistakenly thought to have been the first commercially available watch to incorporate a Helium Escape Valve but not so .

You will need to delve into diving technology to understand the need for a Helium valve but believe it or not Professional Divers when going deep had to breathe a mix of helium and oxygen .

Despite this fact , it took until 1971 for Rolex to offer this technology to the consumer market ( pretty slow but Rolex really were a marketing company selling watches “on trend “

Deep sea divers can spend days at depths often below 200m.

They inhabit diving bells where the pressure is much greater than the surface. To allow for this the divers breath a gas mix that contains helium. Helium molecules are the second smallest known to us.

So small, in fact, that they can find their way into a water resistant watch case. As the diver ascends, the external pressure drops and the helium molecules inside the case expand.

This can cause the glass of the watch to pop out. Hence, the helium release valve which is, effectively, a one way release mechanism which opens a tiny aperture when the pressure inside the watch case reaches 3 bar. An absolute need and similar to avoiding the bends .

Put simply, in the late 1960s and early 1970s you could not get a more technologically advanced dive watch than the Doxa Sub 300T Conquistador it really is a technological masterpiece.

The Quartz Crisis

Like so many quality and creative Swiss brands, the longed lived quartz crisis was the downfall of Doxa in the 1970s.

Thankfully, the Jenny family took ownership of Doxa in 1997.

Special mention must be awarded to watch fan Rick Marei who, as a massive fan of the original SUB300T, had aspirations to re-create it in all its horological and 1970’s styled dive equipment glory.

VARIANTS

Through his perserverence the SUB300T was reborn in 2001. As a successful team they were clever enough not to break the mould and continued to produce the SUB300T and variants.

The desire was to make this niche brand a global entity.

America was a particularly strong market for Doxa watches, buoyed, no doubt, by the exponential growth of the recreational dive market and, later, with the inclusion of the screen grabbing design on Mathew McCounaughey’s wrist during his portrayal of Dirk Pitt in the 2005 film Sahara.

Incidentally, Clive Cussler’s most famous character had a SUB300T on his wrist for many years before Sahara and the Jenny/Marei reinvigoration, but most readers simpy thought the wrist watch of the fabricated adventurer was a made up prop. Cussler worked in a dive shop and was gifted a SUB300T by the owner. He was immediately smitten.

We can only look on in envy as these fantastic looking timepieces were being flaunted on the US watch forums.

This was until 2019, when the Doxa brand was made officially available in the UK for the first time.

We at Watches Of Westminster would be keen to see your vintage Doxa watch and make you a great offer for it TODAY. Just send us a few pictures via our valuation page below. Or you can also Whatsapp us on 07768316371 and we will give you a fast response.

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WoWadmin December 5th, 2021

Posted In: Sell My Watch