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<\/a><\/p>\nOne can think of watches as a kind of challenge coin that you wear on your wrist, all day, every day, subconsciously waiting for some other like-minded soul to notice. And for most of us, many decades removed from the forced sociality and friendships of primary school, those opportunities are fewer and further between. So when Doxa and The Watch Preserve invited our little group of watch nerd divers down to Panama City Beach<\/a>, Florida, for a few days of diving at the end of August, I said yes before I\u2019d even checked my calendar.<\/p>\n The group is SHIPS, the Subaquatic Historical Interest and Preservation Society. It\u2019s a lofty name for a bunch of people who met through watches, but we find it fitting. Most of us found each other online first, on Instagram or Slack threads about bezel inserts and rare old dive watches. Realising we were all divers, we eventually met up in person for a dive in Lake Michigan, and lifelong friendships formed instantly. We planned a trip, then another. Now we dive together several times a year, and the group chat is as likely to have a photo of someone\u2019s kid at their first piano recital in it as a wrist shot.<\/p>\n I bring this up because it\u2019s the challenge coin idea playing out. Post an Instagram photo of yourself wearing a Doxa in the water and boom: people know you\u2019re a diver and a watch guy and you probably have a lot in common and should probably be friends. You get the idea. This trip was dreamed up and funded by The Watch Preserve<\/a>, a watch shop in Fort Worth, TX. Nik Libby started the shop after finding his first vintage watch at a garage sale when he was 15, and the shop now buys, sells and restores vintage and modern watches for collectors around the country. It\u2019s also the only authorised Doxa<\/a> retailer in Texas. Michael Pandolfo, their Director of Sales and Partnerships, organised everything, and we owe them a huge thank you for making it happen.<\/p>\n The modern Doxa lineup has no shortage of hits, and Doxa and The Watch Preserve brought most of them along for us to wear: the classic SUB 300<\/a> and SUB 300T<\/a>, the newer and smaller SUB 200T<\/a>, the Army<\/a>, and the new SUB 200 T-Graph II chronograph<\/a>. Also along for the ride was the SUB 300 Ti5 Clive Cussler limited edition<\/a> and a few others. We passed them around for days. You\u2019d wear one on a dive, hand it off at lunch and pick something else to take in the water that afternoon. It was a real dream smorgasbord for a very particular and niche type of watch enthusiast.<\/p>\n Everyone found something to like. The T-Graph II<\/a>, a brand-new chronograph based on the 1969 original, drew plenty of interest, being the new kid on the block. I kept reaching for the SUB 300 Ti5 Clive Cussler<\/a>, a titanium limited edition honouring the famous novelist who put a Doxa on Dirk Pitt\u2019s wrist<\/a>. The matte grey dial with an ever-so-slight essence of OD green spoke to me in ways I hadn\u2019t expected.<\/p>\n Day one on the water was a wreck dive. There\u2019s something about dropping down a line onto a wreck that never gets old: the hull slowly taking shape out of the blue, the fish that have moved in and made it their own kingdom, the strange quiet of a place that was once full of people and purpose. We came up smiling and talking over each other about things we\u2019d seen before we\u2019d even gotten back on the boat.<\/p>\n On the second day, the group had to split up for logistical reasons. Half headed for a shore dive off the jetty at St. Andrews State Park, while I went back out on the charter with the others for more wreck diving. The second day on a boat always goes quicker. Everyone knows where their tanks go and where the snacks are, and the conversation picked up right where it had left off. Underwater there is obviously no talking, so when not trying to avoid accidentally crashing into the wreck, there is plenty of time for glancing at the wrists of the divers around me, a little flash of orange or yellow here and there against the blue-green of the Gulf, each one a small reminder of how we\u2019d all become friends in the first place.<\/p>\n Afterwards we were treated to a private tour of the Man in the Sea Museum, a bucket list item for a gang of shipwreck nerds. The museum is dedicated to the history of man\u2019s attempts to live under the sea, thus the name, with a collection that runs from early helmets and hard-hat gear to the pioneering underwater habitats of the U.S. Navy\u2019s Sealab program. We hung around far longer than any normal tourist group would, trying on old gear under the rolling eyes of the staff, asking lots of questions and generally behaving like kids in a candy store.<\/p>\n I wore the Cussler Ti for most of the trip, and after I got home I bought one of my own, having not been able to get it out of my head. I\u2019ve owned a lot of watches over the years; most come and go. But I have a feeling this one is staying. Not because it\u2019s the rarest or the most beautiful thing I own, but because every time I strap it on, I\u2019m back on that boat in the Gulf of Mexico, surrounded by people I might never have met if not for a shared obsession with antiquated dive watches. That\u2019s the challenge coin idea at work. A watch on your wrist sends out a signal, and if you\u2019re lucky, the right people pick it up. Mine led me to a group of friends who now feel like family, and we\u2019re already bickering about where to dive next.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n