Doxa SUB 200

Description

On the occasion of Baselworld 2019, DOXA presents a new edition of the DOXA SUB 200 in steel To celebrate the brand's 130th anniversary Just like the original model, this DOXA 3-handed diver's watch has a case made of a single block of 316L stainless steel of the highest quality. At a diameter of 42 mm, the DOXA SUB 200 features a sapphire glass which takes on the distinctive shape of the curved plexiglass from back in the day. Water resistant to 20 ATM, equivalent to a depth of approximately 200 meters, the model features a unidirectional rotating bezel. The vintage character of this special series is further accentuated by the beige-colored SuperLuminova™ gradations and the light dot in "Light Old Radium" at zero minutes on the diver's bezel. The watch is powered by a Swiss automatic ETA 2824-2 mechanical caliber and rounded off with the emblematic DOXA "rice grain" mesh bracelet, which is also made of 316L steel and features a diving extension folding clasp. Other distinctive features of this edition: the watch’s screw-down caseback , the famous Black Velvet dial and its baton-styled hands and hour indices with SuperLuminova™ beige “Light Old Radium" inserts. DOXA – The Legend Lives On There are some very discreet Swiss watch brands with a rich and fascinating history in Swiss watchmaking, and thriving understatedly to this day. DOXA is one. With the discretion that comes from having earned its place in watchmaking history, and located today in Biel at the heart of the watchmaking industry, DOXA remains one of the mythical brands in the field of diving watches. Numerous patents and numerous awards at national and international exhibitions add to the substance of its remarkable heritage. 130 years ago, in 1889, the Swiss watch factory DOXA was founded in Le Locle under the name "Georges Ducommun, Fabrique des montres DOXA". The future is promising. The brand not only manufactures pocket watches, but also equips the first cars such as the first BUGATTI models, with a clock featuring the patented DOXA 8-DAY movement, a watch specially designed for car dashboards. Already the brand garners awards, including the Gold Medal at the Milan International Exhibition. Patents are regularly filed. As of 1915, the company employs several hundred watchmakers, designers and engineers. In 1925, G. Ducommun, representing DOXA, is elected Vice-President of the International Horology Group and President of the Swiss Watchmaking Association at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris (for history buffs: It is on this occasion that the "Art Deco" style was born; it owes its name to the exhibition). It should be remembered that when Georges Ducommun passes away in 1936, it is Jacques Nardin, grandson of another legendary watchmaker from Le Locle, Ulysse Nardin, who takes over the helm. Coinciding with DOXA’s 75th anniversary, the brand is awarded the 1st Prize at the Swiss National Exhibition in Lausanne in 1964. The DOXA SUB Story Early 60’s: Discovering a New World Below the Surface The Dial of a Diver’s Watch Changes Forever The space race is on. Yet, as the world looks up at the stars above, another universe beckons below: The deep blue sea. It’s 1964, Urs Eschle, head of product development, sees where all these fascinating movie documentaries, TV shows and magazine articles about underwater adventures and mysteries will lead. Diving watches have been around for a decade, but for all intents and purposes, they are mostly worn by military and professional divers. And they’re expensive. Urs envisions a dependable and affordable watch, purpose-designed for the growing community of underwater explorers. He sets up a team that includes professional divers like Claude Wesly, already a legend through his missions with Jacques-Yves Cousteau. He is also one of the two first “aquanauts” who participated in the “Précontinent I, II, and III” dive missions that began in 1962 – similar to the Sealab research project on underwater habitats which the US Navy would carry out a few years later. True to the spirit of “A top quality watch at a reasonable price,” the guiding principle of Georges Ducommun, DOXA’s founder, they get to work. One Mission: Develop the Ideal Diver’s Watch To Urs it’s not just about making an attractive, affordable and watertight watch. Everybody on the team fully appreciates that diving is not without its risks, and that divers depend on their watch for their safety. It’s with this sense of mission and precision that a three-year process of making the perfect diving watch a DOXA begins. Every aspect of what makes a watch a true diver’s watch is explored, examined and thought-through until the optimum solution is found. An orange dial, as tests show it offers optimum visibility even at 30 meters. A larger minute hand that is easier to spot because a diver measures time in minutes, not hours. A case made from a single piece of steel to ensure absolute waterproofness. A bracelet with a ratchet mechanism built into the clasp so that it could be sized without having to remove links. A clasp designed to easily and quickly expand to the larger wrist diameter when wearing a wetsuit. No doubt the most defining innovation of all: a bezel that incorporates a decompression table. One of the greatest hazards for divers is not knowing exactly how long they can stay underwater without having to decompress on the way back. At the time, the US Navy’s no-decompression limit dive table is the be all and end all, enabling divers to monitor time underwater as a function of depth to ensure a safe return to the surface. DOXA’s engineers come up with a bezel integrating two separate scales, one using orange for the outer "depth" ring, the other black for the inner "minute" ring – a DOXA patent. The DOXA SUB Concept is Launched Unveiled at Baselworld and subsequently commercialized in 1967, the DOXA SUB concept is the first truly 100% purpose-designed, professional-grade diver’s watch available to the general public. The radical innovations it introduces soon establish it as the benchmark for professionals, too. It is the first diver’s watch to feature a patented rotating bezel to monitor dive time and ensure a no-decompression ascent back to the surface. The other reason why the DOXA SUB will become an easily recognizable legend in its own time is the hallmark orange dial which is at the antipodes of conventional thinking that insists on black or white backgrounds for diving watches. The prominent indices and oversized minute hand, which also feature beige-colored Luminova™ inlays, enable the most important information to be readily registered by the diver, even under extremely low-light conditions. Jacques-Yves Cousteau, co-inventor of the Aqua Lung underwater breathing apparatus and originator of modern-day scuba diving, likes the DOXA SUB concept so much that he obtains the sole distributorship for his US-based company, US Divers. DOXA diving watches retailed by US Divers in the Americas feature the Aqua Lung logo printed on their dials, characterized by the twin-hose SCUBA tank design which Cousteau and fellow Frenchman Émile Gagnan developed in 1942. During the design and development period of the first series of connected parts, a small batch of SUB models is produced with an Aqua Lung logo in black and yellow. During the tests, this version is finally abandoned in favor of a better readability. It is estimated that only a few copies of this collection, nicknamed "Black Lung", have been marketed. In other words, they now represent the Grail of the DOXA SUB collection. From 1968, the orange dial became a sign of recognition on the wrist of divers who jumped from the "Calypso" to take millions of TV viewers on the legendary weekly missions to explore “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau”. […]

Supplied by the brand to the GPHG for its entry.