Doxa

DOXA was founded in 1889 in the heart of one of Switzerland's major and most inventive watch making areas, the canton of Neuchatel.
The founder of DOXA, Georges Ducommun (1868-1936), was born in Le Locle among the Jura hills of canton Neuchatel in Switzerland. He was one of 13 children of a poor family. At the age of 12, he became an apprentice in a manufacture specialised in casing-up watch movements.
He started his own watch repair business when he was 20. He worked hard to set up his business, walking the 10 kilometers to La Chaux-de Fonds to deliver his products personally, even in the depth of winter.
The success of his watches enabled him to live in Chateau des Monts, today home of the world-renowned Le Locle horological museum. From there he made the daily journey to his factory by carriage.
DOXA & Sportscars...
When the first horseless carriages appeared, George Ducommun became one of the region's first owners of an automobile. He had a garage built on his property and his own petrol pump...
At the beginning of the 30's, the fast evolution of aircraft and automobile industry put pressure on the watch-making industry, it was one of the greatest challenges ever for the watch manufacturers.
As an astute industrialist and passionable automobile owner, Georges Ducommun reacted to the evolving car racing market and started to develop instrument-panel clocks for cars (and aircraft). For those, he used a high-grade 8-day watch movement, which he had patented in 1908.
The greatest automobile manufacturer of that age, BUGATTI, equipped its famous race cars with DOXA 8-day movement instruments.
DOXA, Sportscars & Rallye Timers The tight and emotional relationship between the automobile and watch-making industry has a long tradition and dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. It was in the year of 1911, when the first board watch decorated early automobile dashboards. Watch manufacturers put all their effort in the production of precise high-quality time-pieces for automobile dashboards in order to play a part in the evolving car racing industry. DOXA's contribution to time-measurement in the race car history was the integration of its 1908 patented high-grade 8-day watch movement in the legendary instrument-panel board watch, nowadays known under the name DOXA 8-DAYS. The famous Bugatti Type 35 built from 1924 to 1931 was Bugatti's most successful sports car. The greatest automobile manufacturer of that age, BUGATTI, equipped its famous race cars with DOXA 8-day movement instruments.

In the 1930s, Doxa was one of the leading makers of chronographs, some of which were housed in 14-karat yellow-gold cases. And the firm continued to make watches for the military throughout World War II, particularly for aviators. After the war, Doxa produced handsome, round calendar wristwatches. In 1954, the company gave a gold watch to each player on West Germany's winning football team—the lads were in Berne, Switzerland for the World Cup. By 1956, the company's designers were at it again, this time creating the square, Bauhaus-inspired Graphic in both men’s and ladies’ models. But the biggest event in Doxa's history was its foray into waterproof watches, which happened in 1967. The Doxa Sub 300T (300 is the number of meters it was rated for) featured a U.S. Navy air-dive table on its bezel to aid no-decompression divers while underwater. Even more helpful was the wristwatch’s brilliant orange dial, which was designed for divers in dark, potentially life-or-death conditions. Divers loved the Doxa, which was embraced by U.S., British, French, and Polish naval forces. And so successful was the orange-colored dial that Doxa added a few more models, including the silver-dialed Searambler and yellow Divingstar.