DOXA

[treasureman]

The Doxa has been re-issued by some italian compnay that bought out the old doxa maker.

They new ones are expensive, the old ones are serious coinb foir collectors, more so if they are overhauled.

I have seen a used doxa fully restored sell for 3 grand plus up here in Canada.

In this instance the guy who wanted it owned a jewellry store that sold Rolex watches. The guy did a trade for a submariner in satinless with date.

[pearldiver]

I always liked the Doxa watch but never could afford one. If I remember, they cost about $399.00 or so in the 1970's. I really like the orange dial ones. Those were neat. Since there were no computers when I started diving, (I still haven't bought one yet!) we all used either a Princeton timer that would begin ticking when you went 5 feet under, or in the very early days before Princeton, Timex was the watch to get or a BenRus scuba watch. The BenRus model was about $25.00 and had a bezel that clicked into place where as the Timex didn't.

[treasureman]

Timex dive watch what a piece of work not only did it time the dive, but it was a depth guage as well. When it was half full of water, you were at 30 feet.

Good for one dive only.

I bought a waltham lasted five years, then went to Tudor submariner lasted 8 years til it got swiped, then went Seadweller now for over 30 years.

I remember my first dive watch with a fond smile because I was a diver, a god of the underwater world. Men were envious when they found out you were a diver (so few did it then) and women swooned when they heard the stories.

I liked being a underwater god..until Padi ruined it for everyone and made so many courses.

Wonder who the patron saint of underwater gods was???

Oh well I guess even underwater gods have to retire some day lol

[Nemrod]

This seems like deja vu, but no, DOXA is still in buisness and is still in Switzerland since 1889 and DOXA watches of today say Swiss Made on them like always. They were never cheap and less so today. DOXA is owned by a Swiss watch consortium that owns several other Swiss watch brands. This was done to provide competitive position agaisnt the eastern brands like Seiko and such. This is the way almost all Swiss watches are made today, DOXA uses the Swiss made ETA auto winding hacking movement customized for their watches. This is also SOP in the Swiss watch buisness. Another old Swiss brand, HEUER, I have one, now they say TAG Heuer because the TAG group owns them. Almost all swiss watch brands are owned by consortiums and other umbrella companies.

If you visit their website you will see that in fact they are not made in Italy. There are some interesting watches from Italy and Germany as well, DOXA is not one of them.

As to DOXA, my wife gave me one for our 25th wedding aniversary a while back, I can assure you it is made in Switzerland, in fact it graces my wrist at the moment. I have over the years collected a number of watches, I much prefer fully mechanical automatic winding watches. One of my favorites that accompined me on SDIII was a Seiko Orange Monster. Large, heavy, mechanical and robust and not especially expensive. It is a fun watch. My Heuer, no not functional again, was a wedding gift, wonder what I will get for my 50th.
Nemrod

[pearldiver]

Switzerland did make a very very good watch. I have to tell a story now. I went to Europe in 1971 and purchased an extrememly nice dive watch. I can't remember the name of it, but it was really nice. It cost $32.00 which was an extremely huge amount of money back then because an Omega watch was about $14.00 in American money. It had a timer on it for underwater use along with a bezel that clicked, automatic wind when you moved your arm around, and a stainless steel band. A very well made watch and had plastic covering over the bezel to protect the numbers. It wasn't an Omega, although all the other kids were buying up Omega's when I was there. The guy at the watch shop specifically told me to get this watch as it was an excellent underwater watch for diving and would do well for me. It was a man's watch and really glowed in the dark brightly....... All night in fact. I wore that watch for many years and one day in College, my science teacher had a real live operational geiger counter. He was talking about radio active materials and walking around the classroom discussing watches in the olden days having radium on the dial face. He put the geiger counter near my watch. I should say near it, and the geiger counter went wild. He was taken aback for a minute and checked my watch again. It made the familiar clicking noise you hear on TV. I mean, lots of clicks to the point of being one straight buzzzzzing noise! Then, after this guys shock wore off, he proceeded to ask questions where I got the watch and when. (from a distance I might add.) I didn't know the thing was radio active! He advised me to wear the watch only while diving because it was loaded! I mean, the numbers glowed like a small city at night. I really liked that, and it didn't have a few numbers....it had alot of glowing numbers!!! So, the story short! I didn't wear the watch for many years, and when I was about 23 yrs old, I wore it while boating one day and while water skiing, the watch band slipped off my hand into about 75 feet of water in Lake Geneva, WI. My heart was broken, and I have never had a nice dive watch like that again. Even the Rolex watches do not compare to what this one was. Only the Doxa comes close. It may have been a Doxa, I really don't remember the name as I was a kid at the time and it rests at the bottom of the lake somewhere for a diver to find one day.

[treasureman]

most of the watches from the 70, Tudor and rolex as well as waltham used tritium as luminessence. I think they changed that out in the late 70 early 80.

I have a 1968 Tudor oyster prince (myn first real dive watch) it says tritium on the dial at the 6 o clock position very small letters

In any event, I liked the orange face of the Doxa, and had USD not stopped carrying them, I probably would have bought one, as I loved anything USD at the time. After they stopped carrying it, i never gave it another thought. A visit to their current website shows some nice timepieces.

It would apear that they dont have dealers in Canada, possibly an opportunity to get one or two at cost.

I stand corrected on the italian firm , (it was two years ago since i last thought about Doxa watches, and I thought i had read that they were bought out by a Italian group.. deosnt really matter though. They still are a fine looking watch. Wouldnt mind taking one for a spin

[Nemrod]

I usually wear my DOXA on the rubber strap it was provided with in the kit instead of the metal bracelet it came on. I usually take it to a jewler to switch bands which I did a few days ago. Held up agaisnt the little Rolex watches it makes them turn tail and hide, even the watch guy at the store said it was an impressive watch.
Watches keep getting bigger and bigger. Today they have "bling" watches which are giant size. Anything much beyond a case width of 42 to 45MM to me is a "bling" watch like those Breitlings.
As far as I know, DOXA does not sell through retailers, only direct to USA customers. They offer discounts to repeat customers, yeah, like you buy lot's of watches that cost the downpayment on a house. If I had a spare 2,500 around I might would splurge for that T Graph, nothing like wearing watches that cost enough to reverse the poverity cycle in small fourth world countires.
Nemrod

[captain]

Here yo go. Let your money do the talking.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Doxa-Sub-30 ... dZViewItem

[duckbill]

I wore it while boating one day and while water skiing, the watch band slipped off my hand into about 75 feet of water in Lake Geneva, WI. My heart was broken, and I have never had a nice dive watch like that again.

Why didn't you just go back with an underwater geiger counter?

Really, though, I'd bet you had very little to worry about. Radioactivity is everywhere. Think of the poor folks living in Boulder, CO soaking up radiation from the sun due to elevation and the radioactive materials in the granite around there. I remember during the 3-Mile incident seeing newspaper articles with pictures of ignorant people in the vicinity walking outside covering their heads with newspapers! Probably the same newspapers which made them ignorant in the first place . Anyhow, I remember that the exposure level was very low. Had a person at the house nearest the reactor stood outside for 24 hours per day for 7 days after the near-meltdown, they would have received about 600 millirems of radiation (if memory serves me correctly), equivalent to a full-body x-ray; and that was our worst nuclear "disaster" to date!? If coal-burning power plants were regulated by the NRC, most would be shut down for their radiation emissions. Nuclear reactor power plants emit less radiation than coal-burning power plants (Megawatt for Megawatt) by a wide margin, so I'm told. While excessive radioactivity is something to be cautious about, I doubt that my military compasses or a tritium watch is necessarily much to worry about.

[Nemrod]

The radiation thing is way over rated. Watch makers who painted the numbers and dials did have concern because they would lick the brushes to make a fine tip and thus they were putting radioactive materials in their body. The material when applied to a watch were of no real issue.

Super Luminova is the material used now, it glows brilliantly and for long periods of time once exposed to light. So anyways, it was more a worker issue rather than a wearer issue.

Well, since peraldiver cannot remeber anything maybe it did have some effect!

Yeah, I was taking a physics class and the lab utilized radioative material. The professer told us no horseplay because it was dangerous. It was then he tried to open the bottle, the lid was tight and when it opened he slipped spilling it all over me. I was not happy, I explained to him I would get an A.
Nemrod

[pearldiver]

Huh? Wha'd ya say? Looking at the photo of the Doxa, that watch is pretty darn close to what I had except mine had a little button you pushed on the side for the timer to keep time of your dive if you wanted. Of course the two dials that kept the time were pretty small and underwater you couldn't see it very well. I wonder if they had models for the US and models only sold in Switzerland or maybe mine was old stock. The place I lost it was Williams Bay and it is all silt about two feet deep that starts at about 30 feet, so to put on dive gear and search for it, I'd be looking for a needle in a haystack. Just for the sake of saying.... The womens dive watches are too small to use underwater for me. All we had was a watch and a capillary depth guage for our decompression dives. The Scubapro Decompression meter was expensive at the time and we had heard a few folks got bent using them, so none of us would buy one. The US Divers Calypso depth guage with the red dial was like $22.00 vs a capillary guage for $6.95, so the capillary guage won out on that plus they are very accurate. I still wear my capillary guage and my husbands dive watch. I was diving near Haiti with Danny once. He had purchased some new computer that hooked to his tank valve and the computer was on his wrist. It cost him $1500.00 or so and he was smirking at my capillary guage and trying to sell me one of these things. He wanted to test his brand new computer out, so we dropped down to 185 feet. He was all excited about this computer and showed me the dial face stating we were at 185 feet. I showed him my capillary guage and sure enough. It was at exactly 185 feet. His face kind of showed shock and I was laughing pretty hard. I was sure glad my husbands watch didn't flood!! The only thing I would buy a computer for is if I was wreck diving again because they can calibrate your dive times and stops. I sure miss my good watch! Maybe we'll have a vintage dive at Lake Geneva and have a watch hunt! One thing about Lake Geneva. There was an old hotel that burned and the entire hotel was bulldozed into the lake. We have found silver silverware, bottles, crystal vases, plates, and tons of stuff from that hotel. Everyone back in the olden days just tossed everything on the ice in the winter and when the ice melted, thar she went! Instant garbage dump. I stowed a pile of old pop bottles underwater for safe keeping about 20 years ago. The pile is about ten foot around and four feet high. Wonder if anyone has found that pile yet!

[21]

Interesting about a Doxa.

In 1968 US Divers was becoming very aggressive in intoducing new items to their line and marketing their products. That year they introduced the Doxa watch to their line at the then unheard of price of $150.00 retail.

It had replaced the old stand-by US Diver's watch of many years the Bancpain (AKA "back pain") which was a very rugged no nonsense diving watch, #7254, $77.95 retail.

The Doxa was introduced in three different faces and names:
Orange face "Professional" #7268
Black face "Shark Hunter" #7269
Silver face "Sea Rambler" # 7270
They can befound on Page 28 of the 1968 US Divers catalog and listed for a whopping $150.00 almost 2Xs what the Bancpain was retail.

They were not immediately accepted by the diving public --too big, too gaudy, and too much money!

Tommy Tompson was the PR of US Divers and very active in the LA County UW Instructors program. He began appearing at the LA county meetings aways wearing a different model one of the new Doxas. The watches began to develop a following; the Orange faced models for the instructors who lived in Orange county and the silver for the instructors that lived in LA county. We instructors indicated the silver face represented "Smog of LA county" and the Orange face represented "the clean orange scented air of Orange county."

I had been interested in replacing my Bancpain with a Rolex, either a Submarier or a Oyster. Tommy got wind of my interest in the "other" watch brand. He dropped by my home one day and "made me an offer I couldn't refuse" on the Doxa. Other LA county instructors living in Orange county also began sporting Orange faced Doxas. It soon became "The watch" of the Orange County (LA CO) UW instructors.

All was well for a few years then Dick Anderson returned from a trip to Europe wearing solid gold Rolex to the LA county UW Instructors meetings. He had some how "conned" ( that is the only word I can offer at this time) the Rolex officals in selling him a gold Rolex "at an offer he couldn't refuse" and allowing him to photograph the making of a solid gold Rolex with the promise of a SDM article which would propell Rolex into the forefront of dive watches. SOLID GOLD! He raised the bar several notches above the capibilities of the average diver.

Then a few years later Chronosport entered the market place with a gold plated Rolex look a like. They were not inexpensive --$600+ so I was quite happy with the Doxa. I discovered that Debbie Algrin, who at that time was Sam Le cocq's girl friend and now wife ( see www.portagequarry.com) was the west coast distributor of Chronosport. I called Sam & Debbie, who once again "made me an offer I could't refuse." I am still wearing the watch after about 30 years of very rugged useage with almost no visable signs of wear.

Re: Dirk Pitt & Clive Cussler
In 1968 Clive was working at the Aquatic Center of Santa Ana California (there were three ACs, Santa Ana, New Port Beach and Laguna Beach) and concurrently writing his first book, "Ice Berg." All the local LA county Instructors ( there were very few NAUI and PADI was several years a way) would visit the shop wearing the Orange Faced Doxa. Natually Dirk would also wear an Orange Faced Doxa.

Re: Dick Anderson's Watch

Yes he did write the article for SDM..

I have seen Dick on numerous occasions, most recently about 2 years ago and on occasion chat on the telephone. I have never seen him sporting a solid gold Rolex nor have we ever discussed it . Dick is currently very very ill.

Re Tommy Tompson

He suffered a serious stroke about 10 years ago and is now diving in the great reef in the sky.

21

[Nemrod]

In 1968 I was not yet highschool. It was the 150 dollars that kept me from getting one then. That was a lot of money back then for a watch. Rolex is a good watch but the name has taken on more value especially in the US than the watch is worth. They are slightly boring looking to me but of course that is an opinion becaue there are so many clones that the styling has become generic. Nemrod

[21]

Nemrod,

The $150.00 Price tag was a LOT of money for any watch in 1968. As stated it was almost 2 times the cost of the Bancpain and about the same as the Rolex.

I would have purchased a Rolex had it not been for Tommy's visit and great offer. After all these good years I am still happy with my Doxa. Think I will have it totally overhauled and begin wearing it.

21

[captain]

I do recall the making of a solid gold Rolex article in SDM. I could have gotten a Doxa when I was a dealer but I bought a Tudor Submariner instead. Like 21 said the Doxa was big and gaudy.