Doxa

Doxa was founded by Georges Ducommun in Le Locle in 1889, and spent its early decades on pocket watches and, notably, dashboard clocks for the emerging car industry — supplying Bugatti among others.

Its lasting contribution came much later. In 1967 Doxa released the SUB 300, developed in consultation with professional divers, and it introduced several things now taken for granted. The dial was orange, chosen after testing which colour remained visible longest as depth filtered out light. The bezel carried a US Navy no-decompression scale rather than simple minute markers, letting a diver read safe bottom time directly. The beads-of-rice bracelet included an expansion section to fit over a wetsuit.

Jacques Cousteau's organisation distributed the watches, and US Divers sold them in America. The SUB became genuine professional equipment rather than a dive-styled dress watch, and it appears throughout Clive Cussler's novels on the wrist of Dirk Pitt.

Doxa struggled through the quartz era and was largely dormant before being revived by the Jenny family, who reissued the SUB faithfully from 2002 onward.

The modern range remains almost entirely dive watches, with the same cushion case, the same bezel scale, and dial colours named for their depth-rating heritage — Professional orange, Sharkhunter black, Searambler silver, Caribbean blue.

Doxa holds 10 models, from £1,190 to £2,915. Half cost less than £1,400, and a quarter less than £1,190. 10 of 10 are automatic. Prices are checked nightly against the retailers’ own feeds.

1889

Georges Ducommun founds Doxa in Le Locle.

1908

Supplies dashboard clocks to early car manufacturers.

1967

The SUB 300 debuts with an orange dial and decompression bezel.

2002

The SUB is reissued under new ownership.