December 2002 NAWCC BULLETIN 785
DOXA
There are many watches that have been immortalized
on the silver screen through the decades. The Paul
Newman Rolex Daytona, the Elvis Presley and “Men in
Black” Hamilton Ventura, the Sean Connery “007”
Rolex Submariner, and the Pierce Brosnon Omega
Seamaster Professional all come to mind, and there
are many others.
But rarely, if ever, have watch manufacturers and
their public relations spin doctors chosen to extol a
watch whose virtues have been cited in the pages of
popular fiction. That is, until now.
Armchair adventurers who are fans of Clive Cussler
and his novels are no doubt aware that the primary
character, Dirk Pitt®, is rarely without his trusty wristwatch,
the Doxa SUB 300T Professional. The watch is
unmistakable; it is a huge hunk of metal with a matching
bracelet and a bright orange dial.
Water-resistant to 300 meters (1,000 feet), it is a
serious watch intended for, and initially marketed to,
serious divers. But after repeat performances in one
Cussler novel after another, the watch took on a much
larger life. It found itself on the wrists of thousands of
men whose biggest underwater adventure would be
the bathtubs in their own bathrooms! It became so
popular that in April of 2002, Doxa re-issued the SUB
300T in a limited production of 1,000 pieces (Figure 1).
As I write this article, there are about 20 pieces left,
and they are certain to be sold out by the time you read
this.
“The SUB 300T Professional (is) best known
through the adventures of Clive Cussler’s fictional
hero, Dirk Pitt®, “who wears his DOXA SUB 300T
Professional on all his underwater adventures in 18
bestselling novels,” states the Doxa Company.
Cussler himself wears a vintage SUB 300T, having
acquired it while working a part-time job in a dive
shop in Santa Ana, Calif. It was during this time that
he was writing one of his early novels. During slow
times at the dive shop, he would crank out pages of his
novel at the typewriter. “When I left the store, I had
finished my book,” says Cussler. “I shook hands with
the guys, and as a present they gave me the Orange
Doxa dive watch. When I continued writing, I just had
Dirk wear one, too.” Cussler still has the watch. And he
has one of the new versions, too, as Doxa presented
him with serial number 001/1000 of the re-issued
watch.
But it is the vintage SUB 300Ts that today are one
of the hottest collectibles in the watch market. It’s not
unusual for collectors to spend up to two years trying
to find one, and forking over $1,000 and more for a nice
specimen with its original bracelet.
What’s all the fuss, you might ask. Well, to begin
with, the Clive Cussler novels are not just ordinary
books. To date, they have sold more than 70 million
copies worldwide. The novels are such a profitable
enterprise that Cussler and his publisher have officially
registered the name Dirk Pitt®. To print the name
without the “registered” symbol is to invite litigation!
As comedian Yakov Smirnoff says, “What a country!”
One wonders whether people actually named Dirk
Pitt®—and there are at least three in the United States
alone—have to seek permission from Cussler to sign
their name! But I digress.
Cussler’s readers are some of the most devout fans
you will find in the literary world. (There are websites
devoted to Cussler and his novels.) If you are like many
action-hero-wanna-bes (myself included), to read one
Clive Cussler novel is to become hooked. Dirk is to
water (above and below it) what James Bond is to land
To a casual observer, the plots often become preposterous,
the heroes are far too perfect, and the women in
the novels fall into bed far too easily.
But if you dig a little deeper, you find that many
Cussler novels are snatched from the scientific headlines
of the day and contain an element of reality. My
Wristwatches
by Bruce Shawkey (WI)
Figure 1. The reissued
Doxa Sub
300T. Its massive
case measures
43 mm in diameter,
45 mm lug to lug, and
14 mm thick. It has a
25-jewel automatic
movement. It is nearly
identical to the original
one produced in
1967, with a slight
variation in the
bracelet design (the
1967 model has a rice
bead bracelet while
the re-issue’s bracelet
has more solid center
links).
786 NAWCC BULLETIN December 2002
Wristwatches
own relationship with Cussler began
in 1976 with Raise the Titanic! I have
read every Cussler novel before and
since Titanic, and am in the process
of collecting all of Cussler’s works in
first editions.
And then there is that awesome
watch! It is a perfect example of the
essence of Cussler’s character, Dirk,
who rarely follows the pack in anything he does.
Those of you who have followed my articles on wristwatches
know that I enjoy collecting and writing about
the unusual, the overlooked, and the undervalued. Let
others write about Rolex and Patek Philippe and
LeCoultre. Sure, they are perfectly good watches. But
give me the Midos, the Tissots, and the Cymas of the
vintage watch world. And, yes, Doxa.
I’m happy that the SUB 300T is introducing thousands
of people to a brand they have probably never
heard of. But to be sure, Doxa had been making great
watches (and clocks) before Dirk Pitt® and his creator
were ever born!
Doxa was founded in 1889 in the canton (district) of
Neuchatel’s Jura Mountains. The founder, George
Ducommun (1868-1936), was born in Le Locle and was
one of 13 children in a poor family. At the age of 12, he
apprenticed with a manufacturer specializing in casing
watch movements. He started his own watch repair
business when he was 20. A year later, he founded the
company. It is not mentioned in company historical
records why he chose the name Doxa. We can only
assume that Ducommun, like many other watchmakers
of the day, simply wanted to choose a name that
was short, catchy, and easy to remember.
By the time he reached his 30s, Ducommun became
a car enthusiast, as did many young industrialists at
that time, when automobiles were beginning to
emerge. Ducommun patented an 8-day clock in 1908
that found its way into Bugatti race cars, among others.
That single event more or less sealed the company’s
future as a purveyor of timekeeping devices to the
sport side of the market. Though it is possible to find
Doxa dress watches from the 1920s right up to present
day, most watches are decidedly sporty in look and
function.
The Doxa watches one typically finds are cased in
chrome or stainless steel, corresponding to sporting
watches. A catalog from 1939, for example, shows no
fewer than five chronographs (Figure 2). Nine other
models of men’s watches that are not chronographs
(Figure 3) all appear to be cased in stainless steel or
chrome. In a word—sports.
We also see aviator style watches (Figure 4), and it
is evident that some of these Doxa watches found their
way into the German military during the 1930s and
‘40s; some of these bear military markings and styling
characteristics.
The 1950s finds watches with design characteristics
of this “retro modern” period with large stylized lugs.
One watch in particular stands out—the Grafic
(Figure 5). Following the Bauhaus theory of design
(less is more), it featured a dial with no numerals and
an unusual date placement at 10:00. Another watch
from this period is shown in Figure 7, with large
teardrop lugs.
The Grafic continued into the 1960s with an automatic
movement. The 1970s saw the introduction of an
alarm watch called the Conquistador (Figure 6).
Of course the watch that would ultimately put Doxa
on the map, the SUB 300T, was born in 1967. The
watch introduced two revolutionary innovations. The
first feature was the unidirectional rotating bezel,
which integrated a no-decompression-limit table to the
Figure 2, right. The page from a
1939 Doxa catalog shows five
chronographs. Hood and/or swinging
lugs adorn three of the models.
Figure 3, far right. The remaining
nine watches from the 1939 Doxa
catalog, which are time-only models.
All appear to have stainless steel or
chrome cases. With a couple exceptions,
they all appear to be sport
watches, designed to stand up
against the rugged wear and tear
that would compromise a gold or
gold-filled case very quickly.
watch. The official U.S. Navy Air dive table for nodecompression
dives was engraved on the bezel to
assist divers in monitoring time and water depth during
underwater excursions. Other manufacturers
would follow Doxa’s lead on this design feature.
The second innovation was to use a luminous bright
orange dial instead of common classic black and white.
The idea behind the orange dial was to achieve high
readability under extreme dark diving conditions. To
hedge their bets, Doxa also made the watch with a traditional
black and white dial. The orange-dial version
is today considered by far the more desirable of the two
dial configurations.
Today, Doxa is headquartered in Bienne and is one
of the few independent companies that hasn’t been
swallowed up by the giant Swiss watch consortium,
The Swatch Group. Doxa’s collection includes the
Seahunter, the Sharkhunter, the Professional, and the
Pilot, all of which are sport watches. They also continue
to market an eight day clock, which they call the
Rallye Timer. And, yes, that is the company’s spelling
of “Rallye.”
The company’s one concession to the dress watch
market is the Grafic. It is available only in Europe.
Two large Roman numerals have been added to the
dial design, but the date window remains at the 10:00
position as a nod to its predecessor.
If you want to read more about Doxa, there is an
internet forum devoted to the brand at
www.watchuseek.com/fora.htm. Be warned, however,
that it is dedicated heavily to the SUB 300T. For a complete
interview of Cussler talking about the SUB 300T,
go to www.numa.net/articles/interview.htm.
Bruce Shawkey collects, deals, and writes about vintage
wristwatches. He and his wife live in Evansville,
Wisconsin.
If you are interested in wristwatches consider joining
the NAWCC Wristwatchers Chapter 181. Dues are
$10 a year, and include a quarterly newsletter and an
annual meeting. If you’d like to join, send a $10 check,
made payable to NAWCC Chapter 181, to Rene
Rondeau, P.O. Box 391, Corte Madera, CA 94976.
Please include your name, address, and NAWCC member
number.
December 2002 NAWCC BULLETIN 787
Wristwatches
Figure 4, left. An aviator’s style watch, circa 1928, contains a 15-jewel signed manual-wind movement. It is chrome
plated, has a base metal screwback case, and is 40 mm tip to tip. Features include ribbon lugs, rotating bezel with
departure indicator, and a dark brown and black dial with luminous Arabic numerals. Wide crown mounted far from
case is designed to be wound while wearing pilot’s gloves. Figure 5, center. The Doxa Grafic, with 17-jewel signed
full rotor automatic movement, has a yellow gold electroplate case with stainless steel back. The case measures 35
x 30 mm, and the dial has painted multi-cross hairs in place of numerals, with a date aperture at 10 o’clock position.
Figure 6, right. The Doxa Conquistador alarm, with 17-jewel signed manual-wind alarm movement (A. Schild
Caliber 1930), has a stainless steel cushion case measuring 42 x 37 mm. The silvered dial has applied steel and
black markers. All Photos above are copyright finertimes.com. Used with permission.
Figure 7. This rare example
of a Doxa dress watch is
cased in 18kt pink gold. It
has a 17- jewel signed manual
wind movement and
deeply curved teardrop lugs.
This is probably late 1940s
or early 1950s vintage.
Photo copyright
finertimes.com. Used with
permission.
COURTESY/FINERTIMES.COM (4)
