Doxa Sub 300T Divingstar

In the fall of 1975, Jacques Cousteau set sail for the Aegean Sea on his ship Calypso. He and his crew had spent a year searching for the lost city of Atlantis. But they would never find it, leaving the ancient question of its existence unanswered.

Instead, he would discover the wreck of a ship that had sparked controversy for decades: Britannic, a sister ship of the Titanic who met an equally gruesome fate. 

It was November, 1916.

Requisitioned as a hospital ship, the Britannic ferried sick and wounded from the bloody fields of Gallipoli to Great Britain. During her return voyage to the Middle East, the Britannic sailed full speed ahead into the Kea Channel just south of Athens. Over one thousand souls—doctors, nurses, and crew—were on board.

On the morning of November 21, the double-hulled ship shook from stem to stern. The doctors and nurses jumped immediately to their posts. On the bridge, Captain Bartlett ordered the telegraph officer to send out an SOS signal.

But down below, the lower decks filled with water. Water also streamed in through portholes that the nurses had opened to ventilate the wards. The crippled ship listed to starboard and started to sink.

When news of the disaster reached Britain, fingers pointed across the Channel to Germany. “It was a torpedo,” survivors would claim, which the Germans stoutly denied. “She was carrying ammunition and troops,” the Germans declared, “but we did not torpedo her—it was a mine!”

The truth lay obscured on the seafloor of the Aegean for sixty years, until Jacques Cousteau happened upon her wreck.

Its precise location wasn’t known until Cousteau found it. The Vice President of the Titanic Historical Society had given Cousteau charts from the Admiralty that pinpointed where she supposedly lay. Equipped with the chart, and with a new technology—side-scanning sonar—Cousteau scoured the seafloor, looking for Atlantis, but always keeping the Britannic in the back of his mind.

Finally, on the morning of December 3, 1975, he found her—in four hundred feet of water, eight miles from where the chart had said.

When he and his divers inspected the wreck, Cousteau found no evidence that troops or ammunitions had ever been on board when she sank. Nor had she been torpedoed. She had, quite simply, strayed into a mine field, an unwitting casualty in a long and bloody war.

In the television documentary that depicts Cousteau’s discovery of the Britannic, he and his crew can be seen wearing DOXA Sub 300T dive watches.

Cousteau himself had been consulted in the creation of these hefty dive watches. In fact, he was also the sole distributor of the model in the United States through his company, U.S. Divers. While the orange dial variants are the most iconic and commonly-seen version, Cousteau favored one with a black dial, the Sharkhunter.

This particular example is yet another variant, the Diving Star, notable for its bright yellow dial. Like Cousteau and Atlantis, many vintage collectors can spend years searching for one, as the bright yellow dialed versions are truly elusive. Strap it on and you’re standing on the deck of the Calypso, next to the man himself, eyes on the rolling waves of the Aegean as he prepares to plunge beneath the surface one more time.

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Condition

Since our pieces are vintage or pre-owned, please expect wear & patina from usage and age. Please read each item description and examine all product images.

Warranty

We back each Analog:Shift vintage timepiece with a one-year mechanical warranty from the date of purchase.

International Buyers

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All of our watches include complementary insured shipping within the 50 states.

Most of our products are on hand and will ship directly from our headquarters in New York City. In some cases, watches will be shipped directly from one of our authorized partners.

We generally ship our products via FedEx, fully insured, within 5 business days of purchase. An adult signature is required for receipt of all packages for insurance purposes. Expedited shipping is available at an additional cost. We are also happy to hand deliver your purchase in Manhattan or you may pick it up at our showroom.

Returns must be sent overnight or by priority international delivery, fully insured and paid for by the customer. A restocking fee may apply. Watches must be returned in the same condition as initially shipped.

We welcome international buyers, please contact us prior to purchase for additional details on shipping and payment options.