1950s DOXA Dead Beat Dress Watch (Ref. 15001)

Doxa S.A. was founded in 1889 by Georges Ducommun as a maker of dress watches and other timepieces. The brand would eventually become known for producing some of the most robust dive watches in the world, but they continued making really beautiful dress watches at the same time.

Case in point, this model, which precedes the first of those dive watches by about a decade. On the surface, it's a relatively subdued, albeit highly attractive, stainless steel dress piece that would look as good with a suit as it would a t-shirt.

But underneath, it gets a bit more interesting. That's because this ref. 15001 features a deadbeat escapement—also known as a "jumping seconds" movement—which foregoes the typical sweeping motion of a mechanical movement and instead "snaps" to each second like a quartz movement. It's similar to what you'd find inside an Omega “Synchrobeat” or Rolex Tru-Beat and, while it's more or less a novelty today, it's also a really interesting mile-marker in watch history.