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In 1889 Georges Ducommun, at barely the age of twenty, founded his own reassembly atelier in Le Lode. It was the stepping stone
to a career which might be termed typically American by a European in this day and age. Within just a few years Ducommun's backyard workshop had been turned into a veritable factory, over whose door the proud brand name Doxa was emblazoned.
The industrious craftsman obviously knew how to enjoy the good things in life as well, for he made his home in the idyllic Chateau des Monts castle high above Le Lode, where today the world-famous watch museum is housed. He managed the steep path to the factory in the mornings and evenings by horse-drawn buggy - it's no wonder that the talented designer showed a very early interest in automobiles. Georges Ducommun was one of the first to possess an "iron carriage" in the entire canton of Neuchatel.
It was his car that brought him to one of his most successful business ideas: Doxa was soon manufacturing large amounts of docks for automobile dashboards, outfitted with eight-day movements that Ducommun patented in 1908.
Very dever. These historical anecdotes were very important for the new launch of the traditional Doxa brand, thus there once again exists a pocket watch with an eight-day movement at Doxa. And there is also a sporty chronograph named for the legendary automobile race: The Coppa Milano-San Remo, which was attended by Europe's racing elite in the years between the two world wars.
A further highlight of the company's history, also commemorated by the contemporary owners, was the success of the diver's watch Sub 300T. When this watch was issued in 1967, it was dearly very different from most of the other so-called professional diver's watches. The U.S. Diving Association turned out to be a competent consultant, and the American frogmen obviously knew exactly what it was that they needed: a light-colored dial for midrange diving depths, when it is not yet dark enough for luminous numerals, and a wide case base that lays securely on the arm.
The special feature of this watch, however, is the two rows of numerals found on the unidirectionally rotating bezel: The inner ring of
numbers is a conventional minuterie, but the outer set constitutes the display of depth in meters. In relation to the minute display found on the inner half of the bezel, this results in a functional decompression table: When, at the beginning of the dive, both markers are set to the top of the minute display, it is possible to read from the bezel that at a diving depth of 30 meters it is about time to think about slowly getting back to the surface after about 25 minutes. At 40 meters after 15 minutes, and, correspondingly, at 20 meters only after 50 minutes. Very, very clever.
The contemporary Doxa product developers who pulled the striking '60s design of the Sub 300T out of the drawer and are now offering it to watch collectors and traditionally minded divers in various limited editions were also very clever. These are only offered via the Internet, while the rest of the collection is traditionally sold by jewelers. The limited edition Sub 300T is delivered with a certificate signed by Clive Cussler, author of the Dirk Pitt series, whose hero of the same name wears a Doxa diving watch during his fictitious adventures in paperback form.
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Doxa Watch
SA Ferdinand-Frey-Weg 36/6 1140 Vienna, Austria
Tel: (011-43) 1-577 2644
Fax: (011-43) 1-577 26 27
www.doxawatches.com
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