Zodiac has long been one of my favorite brands, and the reasoning is simple: the company produces aesthetically interesting watches, frequently in a neo-vintage style, and almost always at an accessible price point. Nonetheless, we don?t cover this Fossil Group-owned brand very often here at “Vintage Eye,” with the most recent being the Astrographic. Funnily enough, that watch was just updated earlier this month with a 50th anniversary edition hearkening back to the original model in that collection.

This week we finally pay a return visit to Zodiac, and to one of the most fascinating collections in the brand?s history, the Zodiac Olympos. The original Olympos was first released in 1961 and didn?t survive past the era. It was, like many of Zodiac?s watches during the period, a funky take on a classic watch design, in this case being an innovative iteration of a classical dress watch. That original watch presented itself with a unique ?manta ray? case, a 2 o?clock crown placement, and a quadrant dial, together giving it a distinctive ?60s look, and one very uncommon in the market today. Last year, the Olympos made big waves in its re-release, which featured two limited-edition models (both now sold out through Zodiac): the field watch-inspired Olympos Military and the very cool ?60-inspired ?Mystery Dial? model (pictured above). The sole remaining model in the collection?s lineup (that is, until the highly likely release of more limited-edition variants) is the ...