The story of Davidoff
The house traces its roots to the tobacco shop opened in Geneva in 1911 by the Davidoff family. Over the twentieth century Zino Davidoff, the founder's son, turned it into a world reference for cigars and a byword for refined living. The name later extended into other categories, including fragrance, developed under licence from the 1980s. Cool Water, launched in 1988 and composed by Pierre Bourdon, changed men's perfumery: it combined the structure of a fougère with fresh, marine notes that were strikingly new at the time, paving the way for the entire aquatic wave of the 1990s. It remains one of the best-selling masculine fragrances of its era and the backbone of the brand, reissued in many versions. For many men, it was the first fragrance they ever owned, which partly explains its enduring affection.
An olfactory signature
Davidoff's fragrance identity is the marine freshness of Cool Water. The opening combines mint, lavender and coriander, a brisk aromatic gust of air. The heart of geranium, jasmine and sandalwood brings floral clarity with a faintly creamy edge. A base of cedar, musk and amber extends the impression of skin just out of the sea. It is a crystal-clear aquatic fougère, designed to conjure open water rather than a drawing room, and it still does so with remarkable directness.
Which Davidoff perfume to choose?
In our database Davidoff is represented by Cool Water, its 1988 classic. Choose it if you want a fresh, aromatic scent for summer, the gym or daytime, with a genuine retro 1990s identity. For a more modern take on the same marine idea, compare it with Giorgio Armani Acqua di Gio; for a drier fougère, with Cerruti 1881.