Latest Review
Doxa added a GMT to their collection for the first time in years to much fanfare recently (we covered it here). This watch got quite a bit of press and stirred considerable interest within the enthusiast community, but to my mind it was only the second best watch the brand showed us when we met with them in Geneva last month (that’s second out of two, just to be clear). I’m not sure what it is, exactly, but I’m a little over the whole “put a GMT on it” approach to product development that the industry has been stuck in for the last few years. Do we really need the ability to track two or more time zones on every watch? And should we really be doing it with movements that perform this function almost by accident and are nearly impossible to use correctly if you’re actually traveling? I’m trying not to be a hater, really I am, but every time I see a new GMT equipped watch that’s just a riff on an existing diver or chronograph, as if a GMT complication is just an extra side on a barbecue platter, I ask myself what it is that we’re doing here, really.
A new version of the Doxa SUB 200 was the other watch Doxa was showing in Geneva last month, although it was embargoed until last week, so I couldn’t come out of that meeting with the blistering hot take that it actually makes a lot more sense as a watch than the SUB 250T GMT, which to me feels like something ChatGPT might invent if you asked it to think of Doxa watches that don’t yet exist. This SUB 200 is not being pitched as a new watch, but simply a line extension for the most straightforward of Doxa’s divers. The change here is that they’ve nixed the sapphire bezel and replaced it with one in polished stainless steel. That’s it. That’s the watch. Simple, easy to understand, makes perfect sense. Not that having the ability to refer to a second time zone while in the middle of a dive doesn’t make sense. I’m sure lots of pro and serious amateur divers for whom that “no deco” bezel is a must are also considering when to make that international phone call before they surface.
Anyway, the Sub 200 now has a steel bezel option. There’s nothing particularly revolutionary about this, and it would be perfectly fair to tell me that this update is even more arbitrary than putting a GMT on a diver, but it changes the character of the watch pretty dramatically. Here’s the thing: I was never particularly drawn to the Sub 200. It’s a perfectly nice, simple diver, and is notably affordable, and a great watch to recommend to someone who wants a diver with real heritage, that’s Swiss made, and comes in at around $1,000. The steel bezel, though, has the effect of brightening the whole watch. It makes it feel and look sportier, and less, in my opinion, like a vintage inspired homage. Of course there are still plenty of vintage design cues here, but there’s just something more contemporary about the steel version in my view.
The Doxa SUB 200 with a steel bezel is available in all eight Doxa dial colors, and on a rubber strap or Doxa’s beads of rice bracelet (the Sea Emerald dial – a sunburst green option – is also available on a textile strap). The specs are exactly the same as the sapphire bezel version, with a 42mm case that’s 14mm tall, and 200 meters of water resistance.
The best part about this release is that the sapphire bezels aren’t going anywhere. Those are still available, and will be sold alongside the new steel bezels. The retail price for the Dox SUB 200 with a new polished steel bezel is $1,090 on a bracelet, and $1,0050 on a rubber strap. Doxa
