
Wristwatches · Wristwatch
Doxa Anti-Magnetic Silver Dial, circa 1940
- Maker / attribution
- DOXA (maker)
- Date
- c. 1940
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Switzerland
- Object type
- Wristwatch
- Materials / technique
- silver
- Stock no.
- vws3439
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Vintage Watch Specialist (vws3439)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Doxa Anti-Magnetic Silver Dial - New Old Stock - c.1940 (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Vintage Watch Specialist (dealer), United Kingdom (stock number vws3439), this is a wristwatch by DOXA, made in Switzerland, dated c. 1940. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Wristwatches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: silver. The record is illustrated with 6 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Dealer description — Vintage Watch Specialist
A New Old Stock 1940s Doxa with a Stunning Silver Dial and Unusual Hands, Incredibly Well Preserved with Beautiful Boot Shaped Lugs, c.1940 Doxa Watches, founded in 1889 by Georges Ducommun in Le Locle, Switzerland, have a rich history characterized by innovation and craftsmanship. Ducommun began his journey as a 12-year-old apprentice and swiftly rose to establish his own company. Doxa initially focused on creating high-quality, reliable watches, but it was in the 1960s that the brand truly made its mark. What's on Offer Almost Bauhaus in style, this 1940s Doxa watch is in incredible new old stock condition and even has its original Doxa cardboard swing ticket on cotton and is paired with its original strap! The dial is very stylish with an outer seconds track, quarter Arabic numerals and steel pips in between. The unusual hands are a nice design detail along with a punch of blood red on the needle seconds hand. The dial is encapsulated under a shatterproof Plexiglas crystal and encapsulated in a beautifully preserved polished stainless steel case. The fancy faceted 'boot' lugs are another nice detail and curve ergonomically onto the wrist making this watch very comfortable. A beautifully crafted watch with simple lines offering understated elegance. Beautiful!
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
The wristwatch overtook the pocket watch. Military use in the First World War, aviation, water-resistant cases (1926), automatic winding (1923–31), rectangular Art Deco designs and early chronographs and calendars defined the period.
Read the period in the timelineMore wristwatches from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
Atlas type guide
Wristwatches
Bracelet watches were worn by women from the early nineteenth century — Breguet made one for Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, in 1810–12 — but the wristwatch only became a man's instrument with military use and aviation in the early twentieth century. Between the World Wars it overtook the pocket watch; the 1920s and 1930s brought rectangular Art Deco cases, water-resistant cases and the first automatic winding systems.
After 1945 the wristwatch became a carrier of identity — dress watches, sports and dive watches, chronographs, calendars — produced by Swiss, American, Japanese, German, Soviet and Chinese industries. The quartz revolution after 1969 and the mechanical renaissance since the 1990s, including the rise of independent watchmakers, complete the story.
What to look for
- The reference number (between the lugs or inside the case back) and serial number, the starting point for dating.
- The calibre: its maker and number are often stamped under the dial or on the bridge.
- Originality of dial, hands and crown — refinished ('redial') dials are common.
- Case material marks: 18K/750, 14K/585, stainless steel, gold-filled, plated.
Dating clues
- Wire-lug cases: before c. 1925.
- Water-resistant screw-down cases: from 1926.
- Quartz movements: from 1969; sapphire crystals widespread after c. 1980.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
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