The famous Bugatti Type 35 built from 1924 to 1931 was Bugatti's most successful sports car. Watch manufacturers put all their effort in the production of precise high-quality time-pieces for automobile dashboards in order to play a part in the evolving car racing industry.ĭOXA's contribution to time-measurement in the race car history was the integration of its 1908 patented high-grade 8-day watch movement in the legendary instrument-panel board watch, nowadays known under the name DOXA 8-DAYS. It was in the year of 1911, when the first board watch decorated early automobile dashboards. The tight and emotional relationship between the automobile and watch-making industry has a long tradition and dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. The greatest automobile manufacturer of that age, BUGATTI, equipped its famous race cars with DOXA 8-day movement instruments.

For those, he used a high-grade 8-day watch movement, which he had patented in 1908. He had a garage built on his property and his own petrol pump.Īt the beginning of the 30's, the fast evolution of aircraft and automobile industry put pressure on the watch-making industry, it was one of the greatest challenges ever for the watch manufacturers.Īs an astute industrialist and passionable automobile owner, Georges Ducommun reacted to the evolving car racing market and started to develop instrument-panel clocks for cars (and aircraft). When the first horseless carriages appeared, George Ducommun became one of the region's first owners of an automobile. From there he made the daily journey to his factory by carriage.

The success of his watches enabled him to live in Chateau des Monts, today home of the world-renowned Le Locle horological museum. He worked hard to set up his business, walking the 10 kilometers to La Chaux-de Fonds to deliver his products personally, even in the depth of winter. He started his own watch repair business when he was 20. At the age of 12, he became an apprentice in a manufacture specialised in casing-up watch movements. He was one of 13 children of a poor family. The founder of DOXA, Georges Ducommun (1868-1936), was born in Le Locle among the Jura hills of canton Neuchatel in Switzerland. Click here for Doxa timepieces currently for sale.ĭOXA was founded in 1889 in the heart of one of Switzerland's major and most inventive watch making areas, the canton of Neuchatel.

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