Doxa Sub 300 Professional 50th Anniversary Edition, 2017

Dealer description — Analog/Shift

Why We Love It Here at Analog/Shift, we can't hide our love of DOXA. While not nearly as well-known as the Blancpain Fifty-Fathoms or the Rolex Submariner, the DOXA Sub series played an integral role in the development of the modern diver's watch. The first generation of the model, introduced in 1967, brought innovations we now take for granted; the uni-direcitonal bezel with the US Navy's no-decompression dive timing marks engraved, the expanding bracelet, and oversized luminous minute hands to name a few. After its introduction, DOXAxa rapidly became a household name for professional and amateur divers in the late 1960s and 1970s, and the Sub 300 evolved into an even more capable and reliable instrument. The limited edition example we have today dates from 2017, the 50th Anniversary of the original 300 Professional, and is in superb 'like-new' condition with virtually no signs of wear. An absolutely brilliant homage to the most important diver's watch you've never heard of. The Story DOXA began Research and Development for the Sub 300 in 1964, under a team helmed by Urs Eschle, the brand's head of operations, who consulted professional divers including none other than the father of SCUBA himself, Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Since wearability was crucial, Eschle designed a large case with wide rounded lugs. For the dial, the team tested many colors (orange, yellow, turquoise, and red) in the waters of Neuchatel Lake. An unprecedented amount of tritium was also used on the hands and hour indices. The team implemented a unidirectional bezel with an innovative insert: the U.S. Navy No Decompression chart, with the outer depth scale in orange and the minute scale in black, to allow divers to gauge how much air was in left in their tanks. Rounding out the Sub 300's innovative design was a beads-of-rice bracelet that was the first to implement an ratcheting expandable clasp capable of fitting over a diver's wetsuit without having to remove links.