Leaderboard

What Ya Gonna Wear OCD (On Christmas Day)? I've decided to go Panda ...

Its amazing what the ongoing search for that "grail" watch sometimes turns up. A Doxa - currently FS on ebay - http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300837459500#ht_500wt_1414 turns out to be a bastard son of Breitling - http://breitlingsource.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=44307 AND to have a another Breitling 1/2 brother, with more cross breeding via Scubapro to Seiko! To cap it off, all the little bastards had a quartz ticker! Can only conclude that there were some high levels of watch incest back in the 70's and 80's. That Breitling divers, which then traces through via Scubapro, to finally emerge as a Seiko, gives question to whether Seiko would have much claim to any patent action on that model. Especially when it is understood that the basis of the case for Doxa was initially from Squale. Lots and lots of "fathers" and "uncles", maybe even a freckled milkman came a courting? Sometimes its not such a flash idea to go digging into the family tree! Never know what skeletons may be dug up! Who wudda believed?? Offshore.

Merry Christmas to all you good folks out there. I hope that everyone is enjoying a safe and happy Christmas, and Santa left you all nice gifts under the tree.

I believe that the watch "Crisis" in the early 1970's (Seiko introduced the first Quartz watch in Japan on Christmas day 1969), made many strange bedfellows. The quartz watch's prices and popularity, probably took the Swiss watch industry by complete surprise, and they obviously were not in the least prepared for the drop off in sales of mechanical watches. There were so many mergers, closures, etc. that probably anything was possible. Doxa itself went through several merger/buyouts during that era. From Doxa to Synchron to Aubrey all within a period of 10-15 years. No telling how many side deals, private label manufacturing contracts, etc. went down back then. they were in full blown survival mode for a long time.

Initially, from the 40's & 50's Von Buren, who owned Squale, manufactured generic cases, and sold them to many manufacturers. Companies like-Altanus Genève, Arlon, Potens Prima, Prima Flic, Jean Perret Geneva, Ocean Diver / Blandford, Deman Watch, Margi, Berio, Eagle Star Genève, La Spirotechnique, Wertex, Carlson Tavernier Geneva and Sinn. The rider was that the watch had to mention Squale on the dial. They then manufactured specific cases for a number of big players to that manufacturers design. Some of those supplied were Airin, Dodane, Blancpain, Tag Heuer, Doxa, Zeno and Auricoste, Then Doxa and Auricoste in their Spirotechnique versions and Blancpain in the Bund 3H. These gave Squale much international prestige in the 1970's In fact at that time Squale was basically a case manufacturer. Later still, they commenced manufacture of their own range, and it is interesting to note that at least one Squale shares its case with another manufacturer. Their Corrallone series has the Tag 4000 series case as its base. It would be interesting to know why something like that transpired, and who is the patent holder?? All the Doxa cases were from Squale, so I guess some slipped over to Breitling with the Doxa bezel. Maybe the Breitling next version was then a copied case....who would know now? But how did it transgress to Seiko via Scubapro? ::shakes head:: All records now lost and hidden by the annals of time I guess...it still is really an intriguing story. O/S

I think I'm going to wear this for the rest of the day, PAM111 from the wife, she did a good job.

Thank you my friend ! im enjoying wearing the homage BB ! its proving a very solid watch and very water tight with its 5 crown gasket system !

Absolutely love that piece Happy Christmas to you too, my friend

Love that Black Bay aeromatic. Merry Christmas everyone.

Best of luck TeeJay if you need any additional help do let us and know. Have a safe and sound Christmas

I have £50 for you should you need it. Just PM me TJ

TeeJay said, " I couldn't possibly accept any more money than I needed " Man - you're EXACTLY the kinda fella I'm so happy to help out. That' why I (and others) have said keep us posted as things move forward. Really do. When we did something for our good friend JAG and now you - of course, the goal is not to make our watch forum a place for handouts... but there are lots of good folk here and if someone is truly in need we've got a way just by little bits here and there to help..without any one person going broke... I think it's a good thing. I took 5 families out for gift buying this year... people who did'nt have much money. The largest family (with 5 members) did their shoping and the mom return $100 to me (i.e., the could have but didn't spend it all). Thrifty, thinking of others, not being greedy.... I was so impressed and happy with that family that today I took them all the money back, gave em' a gift basket and something else (forgot what). Love that kind of thinking. Be well. Merry Christmas. Hope you find work and a way to move through the dark cloud... and, keep in touch if needs arise. Just PM me OK...

I hope things work out for you Teejay, we all go through rough times, it's better to ask for help than to bottle it all up or do something that we'd regret doing. I hear you on DC and Atos, the lib dems have absolutely no backbone either. I think the government target the most vunerable in society because the bstards know these the very people who are less likely to be able to gather en mass to shake them up a bit. I'm in Ireland at the moment, and recently the morons running the country cut a Carers grant for disabled people to help pay for the basket case money pit banks. In reality they government was very clever in some ways, ...cut full time carers who can't protest (because they full time care!) and hope that it doesn't have a huge ripple effect as they are a minority anyway. ...So they cut the very people who are saving the state hundreds of millions, and they don't touch pen pushing middle management public service workers who don't even know their own job title......something is very wrong with society these days!

Gen for me, special watch for a special day

A crappy phone shot of my refreshed 7016. Just serviced, CWP aftermarket hands replaced with gen vintage tritium set (that matches the dial quite well I think), also a fat font insert installed with a old tritium pearl.

Hi TC, first of all thanks for your efforts! One thing you should ask you suppliers for is not to over-brush the end links. See how sharp the edges on the gen end link are: And on the rep the sides are much more rounded: Even if the end links would be a tad wider to receive the same tolerances as on the gen it would not look right with those rounded edges. The rounded edges add a lot to the impression of bad end link fitment and it really is extremely important to have the edges as sharp as possible. If there is anything I can do to help you with the project let me know...

Here's a rare example for sale on eBay - a PVD Military Autavia. Nicely priced at GBP 3000.00 Take a look here

Do a search for Domi - member name Bricciola. He's the EU watch expert!!!