In the early 1950’s various watch brands worked hard to create the first watches to help move forward the emerging field of scuba diving. This was the golden years for tool watches and various brands released (for wide availability) their first dive watches during that decade. Indeed, many of these dive watch models are today legendary and constitute what people today think of dive and even a tool watch. I am speaking of course of the Rolex Submariner and the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms amongst many.
However, during that same period, a smaller watch brand released a dive watch that has today gotten a resurgence of attention from collectors. This is perhaps due to it’s recent (2001) acquisition from the larger Fossil Group who has been great at reviving the sub-brand’s heritage. Zodiac’s flagship model, the Super SeaWolf, is perhaps one of the most affordable, historically “legitimate”, and uniquely design dive watches on the market.
Zodiac Super SeaWolf automatic blue rubber
At a price point well under $2,000 for most of their models, Zodiac is a brand that deserves your attention if you have not seen their watches in the metal. Let’s explore two of the fun and colorful models they showed me this summer in Las Vegas during COUTUREtime.
Super Sea Wolf
Perhaps the most iconic watch from the Fossil brand is the Super Sea Wolf. It comes in many versions from the 50s, 60s, and early 70s. Zodiac revived various of their most successful models like the 53 and 68 — indicating the original date of the original model’s release.
The classic Super Seawolf is the 68 model which has a unique oval and rounded shape. As mentioned before, it was used by divers during the early days of scuba. These Zodiac watches competed along side Rolex and Omega and Blancpain for the wrists of pioneering divers. While the 68 model is iconic and has the unique styling that make a Zodiac watch, I much prefer the 53 models which are simpler and easier on wrist.
Zodiac makes a point of creating colorful watches today with various dials and bezel designs that result in a truly unique watch. The contrast of blue, white, orange that is often used works well for them and results in watches that you do not often see from other brands. This is especially true when you compare Zodiac’s dive watches with the classic from the mainstream brands dive watches on the market today.
For movements, Zodiac watches use parent company Fossil STP (Swiss Technology Production) mechanical movements. These are ETA clones produced in Switzerland but heavily assisted by robots. It’s not clear in what proportion robots and humans are creating the movements, suffice to say you are not getting a handmade movement in your watch. These industrial movements are meant to be clones of ETA such that products that were designed for the well known ETAs could swap in the appropriate STP variant.
I have not owned any watch from Zodiac nor one from other brands using a STP movement, so I cannot speak to the quality nor robustness of these movements. However, for the low-entry price and the volume of watches produced by the Fossil group, my feeling is that you should worry less about the movement than making sure to get a watch that you like and that will get wrist time.
The reasoning is that if the chosen watch ends up needing service, I am sure Fossil will gladly swap in a new movement and get your watch back to you in like-new condition (movement-wise). The cost for such swappable movement is not clear, but with most of Zodiac watches going for between $1K and $2K I imagine not more than a couple $100.
Super Sea Wolf GMT
The other model Zodiac showed me was a limited edition GMT model that took the 53 case and added an ETA2893-2. The remaining of the styling is the same as the other 53 models but now with the GMT hand and a rotating bezel that maintains Zodiac sapphire usage but can rotate in both direction and shows a 24 hour gradation instead of the 60 minutes in the dive watches.
Zodiac limited edition Aerospace GMT
There is also not much to argue here with, this commonly used ETA GMT movement includes about 50 hours power reserve, a hacking seconds feature, quick date correction, and the 24 hour GMT hand that advances in hourly increment to make it easy to track a second timezone when traveling.
Astrographic
The final watch that Zodiac showed me was my least favorite but perhaps the most interesting and memorable watch in Zodiac’s current collection: The Astrographic.
Initially created in 1969 as a tribute to man’s exploration of space and finally leaving earth to land on a different celestial object: the Apollo moon landing. The Astrographic has a unique design and shape that make it stand out while breaking with traditions in doing so.
The 40 mm oval shape resembles the classic representation of celestial orbits around stars such as our sun. Time is displayed with interleaving transparent discs that have painted on them the minutes and hours hands. The seconds hand is a simple dot representing a planet.
For 2019, the limited edition Astrographic reprised that unique design, but with a pastel blue dial and a red dot for the seconds hands. The tribute this time is to our future endeavors deeper into space to visit our nearest planetary neighbor: Mars.
What I like the most about the Zodiac brand is that it is one these rare brands that has seen a revival from real historical archive and accomplishments. Like many watch brands, Zodiac had its hey days during the 70s, until disappearing in the 80s and then reappearing and disappearing again in the 90s, but now experiencing perhaps a permanent revival. They are doing so by meeting the needs of a new audience while digging and respecting its history.
By staying true to its heritage, Zodiac is able to retrace their watches to a time when dive watches mattered more than something you’d wear at your desk. By expanding its color palette to include a variety of bright and contrasting pastel colors, Zodiac is differentiating itself from other brands playing in that competitive market.
While today own by a massive global corporation, The Fossil Group, Zodiac has been able to stay true to that heritage and expend into markets across the world. Their willingness to stay in the $2000 and under price point make them the perfect entry-level watch for those wanting a fun dive watch and to get a taste of watch collection.
Zodiac Sea Wolf Topper Limited Edition "Rally" (Yellow)
Naturally, I do have to stress and make clear the proviso that I do not own any Zodiac watches and my experiences does not go beyond seeing these watches at shows and at our local Bay Area Zodiac Authorize Dealer: Toppers Fine Jerwelers in Burlingame, California.
That said, I don’t know how well built any of their watches actually are? how robust the STP movements are? and how well they will survive when tested in extreme conditions? But maybe these are not considerations most buyers will have for this fun, cool, and hip brand. zodiacwatches.com
The Tudor brand of watches is interesting. Not only because they are the watches from the “little sister” brand to the mighty Rolex, but because they have a design language onto themselves that many like and many don’t. While I don’t own a Tudor watch and not many of their models sing to my sensibilities and aesthetic, I always like to see what novelties they produce every year.
At the COUTUREtime show in Las Vegas, I had this exact opportunity. It’s not clear I left with a lust for any of their new watches, but what Tudor showed me was streamlined, strong, well priced, and overall desirable. Let’s take a closer look.