Here at Wound For Life, we’ve always taken note of brands that produce thoughtful, high quality timepieces for the budget-conscious enthusiast. Enter, Zodiac. Although the brand was originally founded in Le Locle in 1882, it went on to face tough times, up until it was finally purchased by Fossil in 2001. Since the buyout, the brand has produced some terrific watches that present great value, not to mention some beautiful designs. Today, we’ll be taking an in-depth look at their newest dive watch offering, the Zodiac Sea Wolf – a reissue of one of the brand’s most notable collections of all time.
For those that aren’t aware, the original Sea Wolf was (and still is) a pretty significant watch, as it was one of the first commercially available dive watches. Back in 1953 at the Basel fair, the Sea Wolf was announced along with the venerable Fifty Fathoms from Blancpain, and 1954 would then bring us the Submariner from Rolex. Although vintage Sea Wolfs might be overlooked in today’s market, you can’t deny the fact that this watch was a pioneer in the world of dive watches, and originally featured some pretty impressive specifications, including a 200-meter water resistance.
With all of that said, Zodiac did a terrific job at staying true to the vintage aesthetic on this one. Firstly, let’s discuss the case. At 39mm, the watch sits comfortably on the wrist due to its angled lugs, and is just the right size. In a market filled with an abundance of oversized designs, it’s nice to see a brand doing conservatively sized dive watches. Additionally, the luminous material applied to the polar white dial was outstanding, and lasted for over 30 minutes in the dark after a decent charge. But as with any good watch, you’re bound to run into some miniscule design choices that’ll make you scratch your head. This brings us to the bracelet. While I thought the jubilee style bracelet was extremely comfortable to wear, it was a pain to get on the wrist. Zodiac has gone with a folding clip style clasp, which proved to be quite difficult to get closed at times. With that said, the clasp did feature a spring loaded extension, which I could definitely see coming in handy on warmer days.
Coming in at $1,195 USD, it’s nice to see that Zodiac still took an extreme attention to detail on this piece, both inside and out. I especially enjoyed the smooth and accurate nature of Fossil’s Swiss made STP-1-11 movement, which is essentially a reproduction of the ETA 2824. Furthermore, extra touches like the intricate notches as seen on the edge of the bezel, and the precise brushing on the sides of the case were much appreciated.
While there might be quite a bit of competition in this price range, I’m confident the Heritage Sea Wolf will do quite well. While having an excellent build quality, its got a truly vintage vibe to it, which you just don’t see in many watches in this price range today. Between the classic design, Swiss automatic movement, and ties back to a greatly important dive watch family, there’s a lot to be had in this one. For more information on the Heritage Sea Wolf, head on over to www.zodiacwatches.com.
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Chris
It’s good to see this affordable little gem getting some love. Zodiac has been slow to get attention from collectors, despite having great history and some interesting models. Maybe the should have gone the Panerai route and puffed up their history while releasing wildly priced time-only pieces with strange references to questionable military exploits.
Hank Hannah
Nice piece Isaac. In the background for the Sea Wolf was the Vietnam War and like me the many GIs who bought their first Sea Wolf at the PX in Vietnam. Our typical watches could not take the punishment of the climate of Vietnam but the Sea Wolf and the Aerospace both were waterproof to 20 ATM. The watch never failed and became an icon of the Vietnam War. Navy Seals even used the Sea Wolf in lieu of the military issue Benrus because it was more easily seen at night and underwater. I still have my original Sea Wolf working fine and I hope the heritage can live up to its true heritage of being a true users watch with some style. Vietnam was a harsh proving ground for men and even more so for the watches we depended upon nightly. They were not cheap then in regards to being quality and working in a very tough environment so the Heritage Sea Wolf has some big shoes to wear. That is the true heritage of the Sea Wolf proven in Vietnam’s harsh climate for watches.