offshore Posted December 25, 2012 Report Share Posted December 25, 2012 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. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freddy333 Posted December 25, 2012 Report Share Posted December 25, 2012 In addition to the strange 'uncles' in many family trees, you often find iconic dials of a particular manufacture turn out to have appeared in many other brands' watches. Apparently, incest used to be quite common, even among the major players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeJay Posted December 25, 2012 Report Share Posted December 25, 2012 The half-blood Doxa is a really handsome watch The case of the second watch, for some reason, reminds me of the Sterile diver's watches worn by the Special Forces in 'Nam Definitly interesting to see how the design lineages merged Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offshore Posted December 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 25, 2012 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 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panerai153 Posted December 25, 2012 Report Share Posted December 25, 2012 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. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeJay Posted December 25, 2012 Report Share Posted December 25, 2012 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. I can't see it ever happening, but I'd be interested to see what Rolex/Tudor came up with if they were to do produce a digital watch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panerai153 Posted December 26, 2012 Report Share Posted December 26, 2012 I can't see it ever happening, but I'd be interested to see what Rolex/Tudor came up with if they were to do produce a digital watch Actually Rolex Did produce a Quartz. The Oysterquartz, from the 70's to 2001. They still have a couple of Cellini Ladies watches with Quartz movements. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.