DOXA
Doxa was founded in Le Locle in 1889 by Georges Ducommun, and spent its first decades making pocket watches and dashboard clocks before finding the identity it is known for today. In 1967 it introduced the SUB 300, developed with Jacques Cousteau’s U.S. Divers organisation and fitted with an orange dial chosen after underwater visibility testing — a choice no serious brand had made before.
The SUB 300 and the Orange Dial
The SUB 300 combined that orange dial with a bezel engraved with U.S. Navy no-decompression limits alongside depth, in a case shaped for use over a wetsuit. It was distributed through diving-equipment channels rather than jewellers, and Cousteau, then head of U.S. Divers, became its American distributor. The design has remained the brand’s centre of gravity ever since.
A Tool Brand, Reissued
Following its revival in the early 2000s, Doxa returned to its own archive rather than inventing a new direction, producing the SUB family in its original colourways — Professional, Sharkhunter, Divingstar and the rest — with modern movements and materials. The proposition is unusually honest for a heritage brand: the current watches are the same instrument, updated.