No Love For Zodiac?

I purchased this one about 45 years ago and wore it daily for about 20 years. A few years ago I decided that it needed to be restored to it's original (as close as possible) condition and had the dial and bezel replace with OEM parts. Case,hands,movement etc. are all original. It's now back in my regular rotation.

Before and after restoration. Dial and bezel replaced with OEM parts. Everything els stayed original. Movement serviced.

And,of course, there's these

I know there are Zodiac fans out there-because I are one!!

Nice collection! I especially love the last one, and I’m glad to know I’m not the only Zodiac fan on here! 

I’m a fan of Zodiac. I’ve owned a couple over the years. They’ve stepped up their game and prices. I believe they are made by Fossil so they don‘t get much respect but they do a nice job replicating vintage styles. 

Yeah, I heard that. But then again Citizen owns Bulova, and Swatch owns Omega. So . . . 

I think both the Super Sea Wolf GMT Neon and the Super Sea Wolf World Time are absolutely killer looking watches.  A neighbor of mine had a Hodinkee limited edition blue and green bezel Super Sea Wolf GMT and it absolutely looked the business!

If Zodiac made a GMT using a movement that allowed for jumping hours, rather than jumping 24-hour hand, I would buy one immediately.  

Absolutely. If I wasn’t hell-bent on a 9209, I’d get the 9409 World Time in a heartbeat. 

Unfortunately they just don’t have the brand prestige anymore. They went bankrupt in the 90s. Now they’re owned by Fossil and use relatively cheap Soprod movements. I do like the vintage Seawolf styling.

Hey...  if memory serves correctly, there was some thread on here about how nobody covers Zodiac watches, right?  😜

https://wornandwound.com/introducing-the-zodiac-super-sea-wolf-pro-diver-mainline-watch/

Literally, this article just came out like 10 seconds ago!

With regard to brand prestige:

• Since Fossil resurrected the brand, and launched the Sea Wolf line in 2015, Zodiac seems to be garnering significant praise and attention
• We may poo-poo Fossil, but the reality is that lots of amazing brands are parts of larger portfolios, in parent companies with lower prestige names - Porsche & VW, Bugatti & VW, Lamborghini & VW...  Hmmm, now that I think about it, it seems that really it's just VW 

Anyway, that new orange Pro-Diver Mainline Super Sea Wolf!  Fully lumed dial and bezel???  I'm sold!  

Exactly. Like I said before, we don’t dismiss Omega just because they’re owned by Swatch. Also, if memory serves, Zodiac has been using STP movements for years now, which many folks see as equal to ETA and Sellita. I know STP supposedly had some issues with the keyless works at first, but they seem to have worked out the kinks, since I haven’t seen anyone mention that issue in at least 2 years. Honestly, I really think it’s specifically the Fossil connection. But like you said, we also don’t drag Porsches just because Jettas suck.  

Oh wow those new ones are using Sellitas. Nice. 

You know what's mind-blowing to me?  The whole "in-house" movement craze.  I get that it's brilliant marketing, but from a reliability and quality standpoint, the last thing in the world you would want is for watch companies to each create their own movements.  Movements are so complex, and tolerances so small, that you don't want some random watch company making a movement - you want tried, true, and reliable.

I get that it came about because Swatch acquired ETA, and strategically it made sense for Swatch to try to kill off its Swiss competitors by no longer selling them movements.  The R&D fixed cost associated with creating an in-house movement is prohibitive, and it's only the largest manufacturers who have enough volume to amortize those costs across many hundreds of thousands of units sold.  Unfortunately for Swatch's strategic play, the Swiss government stepped in and effectively told them, "Yeah, you're not allowed to engage in capitalism.  We are forcing you to continue to sell ETA movements to your competitors, and you'll be allowed to lower the shipments to 30% of your highest volume 20 years from now." 

Nonetheless, Swatch's play worked in that it kicked off the "in-house" movement craze.  Every watchmaker has to waste a ton of money in coming up with their own movements now, while Swatch simply creates new movements under the Omega banner, and then will allow all that technology to trickle down to all the brands in the portfolio, very effectively amortizing the R&D costs across, literally, millions upon millions of units sold over the years.

All of this is to say that ETA, Sellita, and Soprod are, to my mind, the best and most reliable movements out there.  They're workhorse movements that give you quality, reliability, and low cost / easy to service, and they've done so for decades on end!

The only reason we poo-poo these movements is because we've been marketed to and manipulated into believing that "in-house" is amazing.

Can you imagine if other industries adopted the fashionable "in-house" thing?  In every other industry where you have incredibly complex mechanical components driving the heart of machinery, you absolutely do not have "in-house."

• In bikes, Shimano controls ~70-80% of the market for drive trains.  Can you imagine what would happen if Cannondale or Specialized or any of the other hundreds of other bike manufacturers made their own drive trains?  You'd have a lot of paraplegic former cyclists who broke their necks when their drive trains seized up on them as they were going 40mph down a hill
• In cars, ZF's transmissions can be found in everything from big American trucks, to compact hatchbacks, to performance sports cars, to ultra-luxurious grand tourers.  Can you imagine what would happen if every car maker decided they needed their own transmission systems?  You'd end up with Nissan's CVT transmissions, which have a legendary lemon zesty-ness

Sorry for the rant.  But, this is all a long way of saying, I like the fact that Zodiac uses Soprod and Sellita.  That's why their watches are so affordable and offer so much value for what you're getting.

I couldn’t agree more, and your examples are spot on (and speak both to my other hobbies and how I earn my living, haha). 
My Giant has all Shimano components? Why? Because they’re good, and why mess with a good thing?

And yes, there’s a reason so many cars and trucks use ZF and Allison transmissions. You know which ones are the most prone to having problems if you deviate at all from the service plan? Proprietary types like Nissan’s CVT (EDIT: glossed over the part in your post where you mentioned these specifically 😂). Hell, Toyota uses the 2GR-FE engine in the Camry, Lexus ES 350, and Lotus Evora (among many, many other makes/models). Exact same engine. Give me that any day before something that’s ~original. 

Check this YT video out.  Love this guy's videos.  He approaches it from the perspective of someone trained in industrial design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tDO-OGtdqQ&t=325s

Great video, and he touched on nearly all the reasons I also love Zodiac. That dance they do between severe and elegant begs to be looked at. They’re almost gothic, really. I also think there’s a sense of mystery to the design of the (Super) Sea Wolf -- if a watch can have a sense of mystery, that is, which I believe they can. I just see them as being wholly unique among watches. 
 

Absolutely subscribed to his channel, too. Thanks for sharing that!

I remember when Zodiac and Rolex were mentioned in the same breath. When I was in 8th grade, one of the kids had a Zodiac on a jubilee-style bracelet and I thought, where does a 13 year-old come to have a watch like that?

Unfortunatelly you can find very nice Zodiac watches on the second hand market for 150. Purchase price around 2000. That is one of the reasons why not many people buy these watches.

I've seen a bunch for sale used on Watchrecon, but nothing as low as 150.

Zodiac are part of the Fossil group but are made in Switzerland as an independent company. Like Omega is part of the Swatch group.