The Big Blue
I have to admit, before I became a watch collector, I had no idea what Doxa was. I do however have a pretty good connection to diving, at least I was heavily inspired as a young man to want to dive one day. I am a child of the 80’s. When I grew up you probably had a Lamborghini Countach on your wall and a couple of movie posters. I had said Countach and also The Big Blue movie poster. The Luc Besson classic is a movie about free divers, heavily romanticized I might add, and I dare anyone to see this at the cinema and not come out wanting to disappear in to the blue with your dolphin mates, even if that meant leaving a rather sexy Rosanna Arquette behind.
Backpacking Australia in the mid 90’s I took the opportunity to get a diver’s certificate in Cairns, with a few days spent on the great barrier reef. A once in a lifetime experience, I’d recommend it to anyone. Even then, you would be far more likely to have a simple dive computer than time your dive with a dive watch (although our dive instructor did sport a pretty fancy one). |
Regardless of that, it’s difficult to not admire the dive watch as a tool, a design that’s done the rounds of many movies, Bond and otherwise, and still seems to be the most popular type of watch, regardless of the fact that an absolute minority would ever be likely to use it for its intended purpose.
Doxa’s big break is directly related to the great Jacques Cousteau, a pioneer of underwater research and documentaries. Basically, at the time you could not ask for a better ambassador than this man. In his famous first movie, he actually wore a Rolex Submariner but he eventually fell in love with the Doxa Sub300 in the late 1960’s and brought it to market himself in the USA. The watch we’re looking at today is an exact remake of the the 300T, but it’s worth pointing out that Cousteau himself swore by the orange dial for ultimate underwater legibility. On land, I managed to tell the time just fine with this beautiful blue dial. |
My impressions wearing the watch.
I was lucky to borrow this watch from my friend John long enough to form an opinion. All the original packaging was supplied and it’s beautiful.
You get the usual swing tag and a plastic warranty card, but also a great looking, sturdy pouch within the branded white box. This could definitely be used for travelling so it’s a useful bit of packaging that would not go in the bin. This is one of the nicer overall first impressions I’ve had and I think it’s definitely worth the effort from Doxa, well done. |
Next, the watch itself. It’s definitely a polarising design I’d say. I have had people call it an absolute monstrosity and others immediately love it. Again, it’s an exact remake from the late 60s model so the design is not new. Holding it for the first time and it’s like nothing I’ve held before. There is no question that this has been designed with one purpose in mind – diving. The raised bezel is super easy to grip and no problem at all to operate with gloves. The shark tooth design is comfortable on the skin and looks really cool, I had a go at gripping it under water and unlike many other dive watches, gripping and operating the bezel is no problem at all. The cushion like case is comfortable to wear and there are no real sharp edges that could get stuck on rubber hoses. The bracelet is a huge part of the overall design, but more on that later.
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Whilst this is a large watch, the dial is actually on the slightly smaller side. Again, it’s a dive tool through and through. An oversized minute hand is the first thing that catches your eye, and this would be useful underwater since that’s what you align with the pip on the bezel to measure underwater time.
The patented Doxa design helps you both measure time spent under water and also decompression times, so again, the large minute hand is there for a reason. The 5 minute markers have black and white details, as does the seconds hand. This means that they are super easy to see regardless of lighting conditions, whether you’re underwater or in a boring meeting. They also look really contemporary in my opinion, despite being a design that is now over 50 years old. The date window is here and whilst I often think it messes up the overall dial design, here it fits in well for two reasons. |
Reason one, there are plenty of black and white rectangular design elements on this dial so one more is actually just fine. In fact, it fits right in and it’s also not in some irritating comedy location. It’s at the 3 position where a date window belongs.
Reason two, the dial is already broken up symmetrically by the logo and the model name. On that note, brave decision! Not an easy design brief this one when you think about it. “Oi, Jean-Claude, make us large black and white markers, an enlarged minute hand and our brand name/model name located off centre. Oh, and a date window.Tout suite s'il vous plait”. The fact that they got this so right is worth applauding. There are even other models with aqualung logos on the dial and still, the design works. The dial is covered by a flat sapphire crystal with AR coating which is very effective. |
The crown is signed with the Doxa orange fish logo (or pelican, depending on your angle) and we have an interesting pattern here as well. The same shark saw tooth design has been adapted in a crown that’s easy to grip and is a pleasure to operate. It’s screw in obviously and it’s set within the cushion case so it has its own built in crown guards, works beautifully.
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Turning the watch over, we’ve got a nice engraved sailboat design, almost a little catamaran looking but I assume it’s depicting waves under the boat. There are the usual inscriptions on model numbers etc but this one also has the words 50th anniversary edition, a real collector’s item. No need for any see through crystals here, this is a dive tool remember.
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So the bracelet. This is a beauty. Whilst you see these watches sometimes worn on various strap combinations, this belongs on the stunningly beautiful beads of rice bracelet. The ‘beads’ are framed by wider links on the outsides of the bracelet and it’s a very comfortable affair.
The whole bracelet catches light from the sun and is constantly glistening on your wrist. The outside of the beads are round and the insides are more flat, but still with rounded edges, you won’t be losing arm hairs here. The clasp is milled and very high quality, it snaps shut in a very satisfactory fashion. It reminds me of the solid thud you get closing the doors of well made car. The dive extension is easy to use and works so very well. Adjusting on the fly by simply depressing the angled buttons on the side of the clasp, this would take you seconds to fit over your wetsuit. |
Movement
Strap & Bracelet
Case
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One small thing to be aware of. Sea also means sand. Sand is beautiful on pictures and who doesn’t love the beach right? Well, electronics and metal bracelets, that’s who.
You will get sand in every single bit of this bracelet and it’s not exactly fun to feel the crunch of sand as you attempt to close the clasp (Never happened John, don’t worry). I spent a good 15 minutes cursing Neptune whilst thoroughly cleaning out the clasp and bracelet of Victoria’s golden sand. Keep the bracelet for desk diving, wear silicon to the water. |
Finally the lume. I did not have the pleasure of testing this one out underwater with the help of my dolphin friends. I quite like my family so couldn’t risk Flipper not returning me home. Lume is fairly essential in deep water where there is little or no light. I’d say the lume here is good, not excellent.
Perhaps another layer or two of super luminova would not have gone astray? I could still see it when waking up at night at about 4am one night so it lasts well but it lags behind some of the Japanese or other Swiss colleagues in brightness. Still, pretty good so I’m nitpicking. |
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Final Words
Doxa was founded in 1889. There is so much history and so many reasons to get behind this brand as a collector. Perhaps you don’t love the design, which I have to admit is not for everyone, but researching more about the brand and spending some time with the watch, it’s been eye opening to ‘own’ this watch for a short time.
If it’s simply too out there for you and you’d rather something a bit more ‘normal’ looking, check out the 200 range. I enjoyed my time with the watch, it was fun to see people’s reaction to it and I enjoyed arguing with my wife as to why it’s actually a cool design and not a monstrosity. My conclusion here is that more than any other watch I’ve worn, this is simply great fun. It is available in some great colour combinations, it’s a high quality design with some excellent little details such as the shark saw tooth patterns, and that dial never ever gets boring. |
I will say this, don’t rely on videos and reviews, go and try this on. In Australia, we’re super lucky to have a local distributor in Time and Tide so for once we’re not the poor cousin of the watch world.
It may not be love at first sight, but much like coral - it will grow on you. Cheers, Esbjorn P.S if you want to read about dive watches in use, I love this article. |
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