Few watch brands have built their modern identity on historical watches as thoroughly as has Zodiac. Its lineup today includes five primary series ? the Super Sea Wolf, the Astrographic, the Jetomatic, the Sea Dragon, and the Super Sea Wolf 68 ? all of which find their roots and inspirations in the brand?s golden era, spanning the 1950s through the 1970s. Most notable from this period was Zodiac’s release, in 1953, of the original and now iconic Sea Wolf ? a watch that would compete with the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, Rolex Submariner and, later, the Omega Seamaster, among many other famous dive watches. This watch allowed the Zodiac brand to compete with some of the biggest players in horology for decades, until the dawn of the Quartz Crisis, and set the foundation for the success of many future series it released during the period.
The watch we examine today, the Super Sea Wolf 68, is based on one of these models. First released in 1968, the Super Sea Wolf was the diving-superior follow-up to the original Sea Wolf. With a water resistance up to 750 meters, a massive case even by today?s standards, and highly visible accents and colors on the dial, the Super Sea Wolf was the next-generation diver, aimed at the professional. The contemporary re-creation of the original piece, the Super Sea Wolf 68, works very hard to pay homage to the original designs of the late 1960s and ?70s, while at the same time bringing the watch into the modern age with new materials and refi...