Vintage Diving (Watch) Photographs: Cousteau's Divers and their Doxa Subs.

The man, the legend.  Depth gauge, Doxa, and dual hose regulator... 

Jacques-Yves Cousteau is undoubtedly one of history's most prominent and important ocean explorers.  Cousteau is in part the inventor of the self contained underwater breathing apparatus which he called the "Aqualung."  JYC, along with a constantly revolving team of divers and scientists, explored the world's oceans on and under his ship, the Calypso, for decades producing a number of historically important documentaries and books. 

As one would imagine, given the celebrity status of Cousteau and the exposure in film and literature, many manufacturers raced and competed to supply Calypso and her divers with gear.  Waterproof watches were at that time an absolutely essential piece of gear for any diver.  The watch, along with the depth gauge, provided the means for safely tracking and planning a dive to avoid decompression sickness and to avoid running out of air.  

According to Fabien Cousteau, grandson to JYC, Doxa was the first "official" supplier of watches to the Cousteau team starting in 1967.  The watch provided to them was the Doxa Sub 300t, an absolute classic and favorite of divers for decades.  The watch, with a no-decompression scale incorporated into the bezel and the signature "beads of rice" style bracelet is an icon in diving watches are they are still produced/reproduced today.  The watch was available with several different dial colors with the most common being orange, known as the "Professional."  Cousteau's team, for whatever reason, went with the black dial, known as the "Sharkhunter."  Here's a shot of the beast itself.  

It's worth noting that I'm not writing here to create a complete history of Doxa and the Cousteau team but just to share what I think are some very cool images of a classic diver's watch in use by some of history's most influential divers.  Enjoy.  

Doxa Sharkhunter 300t with the US Divers dial on the classic, automatically expanding "beads of rice" bracelet.

 

Is anything cooler than a mini-submersible?  No.  

Phillipe Cousteau, taken before his time due to an unfortunate seaplane accident, wearing the Doxa.

Albert Falco, once described by Cousteau as the closest man would ever come to becoming the "man-fish".