For many collectors, Doxa is synonymous with dive watches, though one of the widespread requests from lovers has been for the model to create one other GMT-equipped mannequin. Again in 2006, Doxa launched the SUB 750T GMT as a restricted version of 1,000 items, and for almost two full many years thereafter, a GMT watch remained notably absent from the Swiss model’s up to date catalog. Nonetheless, becoming a member of the lineup for 2025 is the Doxa SUB 250T GMT, which reinstates the ever-popular GMT complication, and reasonably than being a fleeting restricted version, the brand new collection of travel-ready sports activities watches might be standard-production choices in a full vary of 9 completely different colorways.
Earlier than we get into the main points of the watch itself, it’s price shortly outlining what the Doxa SUB 250T GMT is and what it isn’t. As an alternative of being a devoted GMT watch primarily supposed for navigating a number of timezones, the SUB 250T GMT is initially a fully-fledged dive watch, and it merely expands upon the blueprint of Doxa’s signature cushion-case diver with the added performance of a secondary timezone show. As an alternative of getting a bezel marked with a 24-hour scale, the SUB 250T GMT is fitted with Doxa’s basic dual-scale “No Deco” bezel that has each elapsed time and most depth markings. Briefly, reasonably than being a GMT watch that can also be able to scuba diving, the Doxa SUB 250T GMT is a correct skilled diver that additionally has the power to concurrently observe the time in two completely different places.
As a part of its inaugural launch, the Doxa SUB 250T GMT is being provided within the model’s full vary of colorways, plus a brand new vintage-inspired variation that’s making its debut look on the brand new GMT-equipped assortment. In complete, the collection spans 9 completely different variations, which embody Skilled (orange), Searambler (silver), Sharkhunter (black), Caribbean (navy blue), Divingstar (yellow), Aquamarine (turquoise), Whitepearl (white), Sea Emerald (inexperienced), and a vintage-themed model of the Sharkhunter that pairs a brown gradient dial with a white-finished handset and beige-colored lume. As talked about in our authentic information article in regards to the launch, a number of the colorways showcase dials with Doxa’s “iconic” (aka matte) end, whereas others have sunburst-finished dials, and the vintage-inspired Sharkhunter additionally receives a unique GMT hand than its siblings, which seems as a skinny needle with a shiny crimson arrow-shaped tip.
As for the dials and arms themselves, the core design and structure of the Doxa SUB 250T GMT’s show stays kind of equivalent to what will be noticed on the model’s commonplace three-handed divers. Nonetheless, two key additions separate the SUB 250T GMT from its time-and-date siblings, and becoming a member of the trio of centrally-mounted arms is a fourth skeletonized 24-hour hand, whereas an angled chapter ring with a 24-hour scale and a split-color end surrounds the outermost periphery of it show. As you’d anticipate, the arms and hour markers are completed with Tremendous-LumiNova to assist with visibility in low-light circumstances, and the zero marker on the bezel additionally receives a luminous dot, identical to what you will see on all of Doxa’s devoted dive watch fashions.
If I’m being utterly trustworthy, I initially wasn’t the largest fan of the skeletonized 24-hour hand on the Doxa SUB 250T GMT, and once I first noticed pictures of the watch, I couldn’t assist however really feel that it appeared barely misplaced. That mentioned, I need to admit that the 24-hour hand seems far much less awkward in individual than it comes throughout in photographs, and whereas my private preferences nonetheless favor the fashion of 24-hand that seems on the vintage-inspired Sharkhunter mannequin, I’m not longer scratching my head and questioning what on Earth the Doxa designers have been considering. Because the SUB 250T GMT is, initially, a dive watch, its 24-hour hand performs a secondary function to not detract from the legibility of its show, and the extremely skeletonized form of the hand makes it pretty straightforward to disregard when you find yourself simply glancing right down to reference the native time.
Crafted from 316L stainless-steel with brushed and polished surfaces, the case of the Doxa SUB 250T GMT affords the identical cushion-shaped profile that characterizes long-standing fashions such because the SUB 300 and SUB 300T. Measuring 40mm in diameter by 10.85mm thick, with a lug width of 18mm and an general lug-to-lug profile of 42.9mm, the case of the SUB 250T GMT is barely larger than the model’s midsize SUB 200 dive watch. With that in thoughts, the 1mm bigger case additionally comes with an elevated depth score, and the GMT-equipped collection affords an ample 250 meters of water resistance, which needs to be greater than sufficient to deal with any real-world scuba diving purposes. Sitting inside the unidirectional saw-tooth bezel is a flat anti-reflective sapphire crystal, whereas the reverse facet of the watch receives a stable screw-down caseback, and partially recessed into the three o’clock facet of the case is a screw-down crown that’s signed with Doxa’s fish emblem.
Doxa’s web site affords little or no details about the actions that the model makes use of inside its watches; nonetheless, powering the varied Doxa SUB 250T GMT fashions is the Swiss Sellita SW330-2 computerized motion, which runs at a frequency of 28,800vph (4 Hz) with an influence reserve of roughly 50 hours. As a “caller-style” GMT-movement, the Sellita SW330 affords impartial adjustment of its date show and GMT-hand, reasonably than choosing the extra travel-oriented “flier-style” method that options an independently adjustable 12-hour hand that may be jumped ahead or backward in one-hour increments. Neither method to the GMT complication is categorically “higher” than the opposite, and the superior possibility merely depends upon how every particular person proprietor plans on utilizing their watch.
For homeowners who incessantly discover themselves crossing timezones, a “flier-style” method is usually the extra handy technique, however the lack of a quickset date could make this fashion of GMT motion considerably of a ache to set whenever you haven’t worn the look ahead to an prolonged interval and have to replace the date by quite a lot of values. Conversely, a “caller-style” GMT motion is right for preserving tabs on a secondary timezone throughout on a regular basis life, however this fashion of GMT complication can’t shortly be up to date to show a brand new timezone with out first stopping the motion and utterly resetting the watch. Provided that the Doxa SUB 250T GMT is initially a dive watch, a “caller-style” motion looks like an acceptable selection, though a part of me nonetheless needs that it was geared up with a “flier-style” GMT motion to totally occupy the function of a devoted journey watch inside Doxa’s fashionable lineup.
That mentioned, Doxa is a Swiss model that solely makes use of Swiss-made actions inside its watches, and this present day, there isn’t a available third-party possibility for a Swiss “flier-style” GMT caliber. A number of the Swatch Group manufacturers provide proprietary actions which were modified to supply this fashion of GMT performance, however all the commonplace choices from the big-name Swiss suppliers like ETA, Sellita, and even La Joux-Perret all adhere to the extra widespread “caller-style” method. Had the Doxa SUB 250T GMT been fitted with a 24-hour bezel and been positioned as a purpose-built journey watch, I might in all probability really feel extra strongly about the kind of GMT motion used to energy it. Nonetheless, as it’s a GMT-capable dive watch (reasonably than a dive-capable GMT watch), I personally really feel that both fashion of motion is suitable on this specific occasion.
Similar to most of its fashions, Doxa affords the SUB 250T GMT with the choice of both a chrome steel ”beads of rice” bracelet or a color-coordinated FKM rubber strap. Apart from being barely narrower to accommodate the mannequin’s 18mm lugs, the bracelet is in any other case equivalent to what will be discovered all through the remainder of Doxa’s fashionable lineup, and it’s machined solely from stable elements with single-sided screws securing its detachable hyperlinks. In the meantime, the FKM rubber straps are color-matched to the dial of every watch, they usually characteristic a curved construction that organically wraps across the wrist. No matter whether or not consumers go for the bracelet or strap, each choices are geared up with the very same fashion of folding clasp, which operates with a double push-button launch and contains an built-in extension system that’s accessed by urgent the 2 extra buttons positioned on both facet of the clasp’s construction.
Regardless of being the primary GMT-equipped Doxa mannequin to emerge in almost twenty years, the SUB 250T GMT continues to be very a lot a dive watch, and it merely expands upon the model’s confirmed recipe with the power to show two completely different timezones. When bought on a rubber strap, the Doxa SUB 250T GMT has an official retail worth of $2,450 USD, whereas choosing the stainless-steel bracelet comes at a reasonably negligible premium and brings the entire as much as $2,490 USD. Though I initially felt that Doxa ought to have unfold its wings a bit extra and created a GMT watch that represented an extra departure from the remainder of its catalog, I’m not really positive that might have been what the general public needed. Folks look to Doxa for dive watches, and the SUB 250T GMT affords every part that folks love in regards to the model’s cushion-case diver with the added performance of a GMT complication. For extra data, please go to the Doxa web site.
