Out Of Office: The Doxa Carbon Whitepearl is the Perfect Watch for a Multi-Sport Summer Day

“Out of Office” is a series of stories recounting our experiences trying to find moments of solace outdoors, as well as our interactions with the gear that comes along with us, and that most certainly includes the watches on our wrist. Out of Office is an escape. It’s about finding an opportunity to put the world on pause, whether it’s the few minutes you take out of your day to read this article, or its the couple of hours you dedicate to getting out there. It’s where our experience meets our enthusiasm. Through this series we’ve already seen our Editors explore the California coast with a Grand Seiko, explore a glacier via seaplane with a Citizen, and navigate the crevasses of a desert canyon with a Vero. Let’s continue this journey together and see where it takes us.”

With summer officially on our doorstep, the opportunities for adventure, relaxation or any way you want to spend the longest days of the year are endless. You can take advantage of the earlier sunrise to get in a longer dawn patrol session before work, or go for a leisurely hike after office hours with a ton of daylight to spare. If you’re the less adventurous type, than that’s cool too. Head out to your local beach and dig into that book that you’ve been meaning to read, or just lay out and check back into reality whenever you deem it fit. If your local surroundings aren’t stimulating enough, then put those vacation days to work. That’s what they’re there for, right? Book a flight and go somewhere nice. Really nice. We all deserve a little R&R.

Although I do fancy a view of a crystal clear ocean in a foreign location, I typically lean towards staying put and filling my free time in the summer with the occasional outdoor multi-sport day. These days could look like a few hours at my local break and then getting a climb in somewhere nearby, or heading out for a casual swim, and then drying off with a bike ride. At some point, I’d love to throw SCUBA diving in there, but that’ll be closer down the line. In addition to the satisfaction of completing these outings, what I love is what the change in scenery can offer between activities. There’s an element of adaptability, both within the person’s skill set and gear. More often than not, our best pieces of gear are the ones pulling double duty – a perfect quality that seamlessly fits into a light-and-fast set-up for a trek to Pine Meadow Lake.

Harriman State Park spans 44,000 acres making it the second-largest state park in New York. It’s home to over 200 miles of hiking trails and 31 different lakes and reservoirs; a perfect playground to get in some hiking, swimming and scrambling all in one day. Among the various bodies of water in the state park, Pine Meadow Lake is the most southern, and humbly sits 1,000 feet above sea level. Accessing the east side of the lake is fairly straightforward and as a result, means more foot traffic and a busy shoreline. Traveling to the west side however, requires a little more effort and patience, but the reward is a portion of the lake that’s entirely reserved for those that make the pilgrimage.

We didn’t have to travel far to be totally consumed by the woods around us, and when all evidence of civilization disappeared, the forest’s soul-calming soundscape took over. Steady flowing creeks in the distance, rustling leaves above and an endless symphony of bird chirping laid down the soundtrack for the entire journey. Towering over us were these building-sized white oaks and black birch trees. With their foliage at its peak, direct sunlight sporadically filtered through, hitting the forest floor cushioned by papery bark, moss and other sorts of short vegetation. It was green in every direction.

Gear wise, light-and-fast was the name of the game, which meant bringing along the necessities that served multiple purposes. Slung over my shoulder was my Bellroy Venture Sling Pack. Its tough exterior fabric and water-resistant zippers secured all my belongings inside the main compartment which was enough room to carry an extra lens, swimming trunks, a small canteen and other miscellaneous things. It was also able to squeeze in my lightweight Columbia fleece which was perfect for the cold morning start and added an extra layer of cushion for the lens inside the Bellroy. On my wrist and perfectly mirroring the rest of my kit was the Doxa Sub 300 Whitepearl. Its feathery case was nonintrusive and the Doxa name was enough to qualify the watch for any type of surface swim we were getting into. Plus, nothing screams summertime more than a white dial watch.

The Whitepearl white dial is relatively new to the Doxa range, adding to their core group of dial colors with equally charming names. The forged carbon case takes a watch that hasn’t changed much since its inception and adds a totally new dynamic. The signature forged carbon swirls complement the white dial and with the accompanying rubber strap, the total weight of the Carbon Whitepearl is just 87 grams. The case features and proportions that make the Sub 300 wearing experience unique remain – a slightly thinner case compared to the Sub 300T, domed crystal and a dial width to case width ratio that looks perplexing on paper, but on the wrist, makes a ton of sense. My hiking buddy, a budding watch enthusiast himself, couldn’t believe how light the watch was. Although I was lukewarm on the rubber strap at first, the chunkiness and integrated look have grown on me. The black strap also bridges the dark case with the blacked out clasp which ties a bow around the whole thing.

As the elevation evened out, the dense forest occasionally gave way to wide open areas of flat rock and each turn of the trail offered up different meadow views filled with various types of flowers and ferns. Although we didn’t get to run into any interesting wildlife other than the occasional chipmunk scurrying along, Harriman State Park does have white-tailed deer, coyotes and black bears roaming around the northern parts of the park. Along the different reservoirs, you might also run into the likes of river otters and beavers. Lately, rattlesnakes have also been a frequent encounter for visitors, so it’s best to always watch your step. Insects were plentiful, ranging from colorful moths and butterflies fluttering about to larger spiders and pesky gnats.

The trail finally crossed paths with the western side of Pine Meadow Lake. After being shaded by the forest’s canopy for a couple of hours, the trees gave way to crystal blue waters. We were no longer looking through green-tinted glasses of the forest and the glimmering water was a sight for sore eyes. A dip in the water was what the soul needed.

The shoreline was peppered with different jumping off points but a toe dip to check out the water temperature had us second guessing if that would be an enjoyable move. It seemed that Pine Meadow Lake was still accepting the fact that the season had turned. The water was cool, but certainly not frigid, and more than manageable for a light swim. We alternated between a few laps to the middle of the lake and basking in the scenery under the summer sun while perched up on a high rock, only to get warmed up enough to jump in again.

There’s no place a Doxa looks more at home than in the water, no matter if it’s a deep dive to a shipwreck or a casual swim at a lake. The 300 in its name ensures its capability at deeper depths, which means the 5 meters of depth at Pine Meadow Lake was nothing the Carbon Whitepearl couldn’t handle. Although the water is where the Carbon Whitepearl belongs, the white dial which is further accentuated because of its black carbon case, is reflector-like in any environment, whether that’s against the forest verdure or at the office. The dial is quite eye-catching which is mind-boggling considering it’s just a plain white dial with black markings. I think it just further cements the quirkiness that is the Doxa Sub 300.

Now we could have gone back the way we came, but in the spirit of known Doxa wearer Jacques Cousteau’s curiosity and exploration quote, “We must go and see for ourselves,” we decided to make the trek back through Suffern-Bear Mountain. Instead of the meandering trails that cut through postcard-esque meadows, the Suffern-Bear Mountain trail was strictly business. There were numerous areas where we had to navigate a river of rocks and decently sized boulders that we had to scramble up on only to be met with more rocks and more scrambling below. The lack of markers and overgrown brush informed that this was probably a trail that was not taken often, and the constant maneuvering through the thicket meant that running into some poison ivy was a genuine concern (still recovering from a tiny bout of it). The path hugged around the mountainside until the Stone Memorial Shelter appeared, nestled into a little rock nook and overlooking the state park. Toward the Hudson River, a circle of summits ranging from 1,000 feet to 1,300 feet stand along the horizon.

One of the best parts of traveling back home after a long multi-sport filled summer day is the extra daylight. It was comforting to know that there was still a bit left to squeeze out of the day, but after the hike to Pine Meadow Lake, swimming it and the long arduous journey back to our starting point, some down time on the couch was sorely needed. I usually like to recap the day in my head and often it ends with a feeling of accomplishment. We didn’t go out because we needed to. We went out because “it” was there. And if I somehow needed any reminder as to how our little microadventure went that day, the glowing lume from the entire Carbon Whitepearl dial surely made it obvious – a whimsical token for a day well spent. Doxa