One more for 2008

I wanted to share this great Seawolf story from Ron Otto in Richmond VA.

Here's Ron's story.

"I love watches also, “real watches” the automatics mostly .. anyway I’m a diver because of my dad and when he passed my mom gave me the watch because of the five children I was the only diver “also the youngest” but to get back to the watch and story. We were not rich by any stretch of the word and I remember when he bought it …a lot of money at that time. I was very young and the money could have been used for more useful things but he wanted a Zodiac Seawolf and he bought one, he wore that watch for many many years, more then thirty I would say, but it finally stopped. Well some years latter he took it to a jeweler /watch maker and it was cleaned and brought back to life ..again he wore it for years daily and each time he went diving the watch was with him , so heres the pictures of this well worn Seawolf it was loved and USED daily for years. The age of the watch was would be a guess ..but forty five would be my guess. Ron Otto Richmond VA

I wanted to thank Ron for sharing his story. I think the old watchmakers at Zodiac who helped create the Sea Wolf would surely smile if they knew how many of their creations still survive and tick on despite many years of tough, honest use like Ron's well loved Sea Wolf.

Happy New Year

Awful, blustery snowy day here in New York City. Only good thing is that the Jets can't lose any more close games (boo hiss).

Got another email from a nice gent asking for information on his Dad's old Seawolf. Always wondered how many of these great old watches were out there, forgotten in a drawer somewhere or in a box in the attic.

All is quiet on ebay, not a lot of new activity except a couple of primo restored examples from ebay seller, rai-justina.

Wanted to share a couple of quick pics. The top watch is my current wearer, its on a green nato strap that came on a CWC quartz G-10 I bought from Silverman's a few years ago. The watch was serviced by a local watch repair guy here in Chinatown. Nice enough gent who does decent work though he has left lint on more than one dial (grrr...). Its a 70's version Seawolf with the enamel bezel which is in darned good shape considering how the dial looks. The dial has suffered water damage. I thought about replacing it but the only black Seawolf dials I have, all have a gold cast to the hour markers while the correct dial for this Seawolf should have a silver-ish cast. I decided to leave it as is and wait for a correct dial somewhere and then I'd replace the dial and crystal all in one shot. It runs well and has a certain charm to it despite the dial looking like a victim of Davy Jones' Locker.

The second watch I picked up dirt cheap. Runs for a few seconds and then stops, so another one for the fixer pile. There is something about these old veterans though, if only they could talk. The nice thing is that it came with an old Zodiac oyster expansion bracelet that though a few of the springs are weak, is complete and working. I had thought that these expansion bracelets were only available on older Seawolves but I recently got a great advertising poster on ebay that showed enamel bezel Seawolves from the 1970's with the option of the jubilee bracelet or the expansion oyster.

I have more parts and fixer upper watches then I know what to do with. Maybe when I retire, I can learn watch repair and bring some of these veterans back to life.

This is one of my favorite Sea Wolf models. The one thing that stands out are those beautiful colors. A beautiful jet black dial contrasted by the white hour hand and orange minute hand and that striking orange minute track and bezel. A perfect combo of color and functionality. I've always wondered how these sold versus the relatively staid black and white dial Sea Wolf models. These are harder to find and command a premium over the black and white models. An earlier version has the standard metal bezel versus the later enamel bezel.

There is a black face model and one with a silverish dial with black hour hand and orange minute. I have a silver dial version that I picked up from ebay, however the watch was in poor shape and has been in dry dock being restored for over a year now. (yikes!)

First Post for the (almost) new year

Thought I'd talk about one of my passions, watch collecting, more specifically the Zodiac Sea Wolf line of waterproof diving watches that reached their zenith in the 1960's/early 1970's.

The Sea Wolf line of diving watches were sold in many military PX's which led them to becoming a favorite watch of many an enlisted man going off to the conflict in Vietnam. I first became aware of the brand on Butch Dunn's excellent vintagezodiacs.com site. I became fascinated by the brand and its history in "going off to war". Though never officially issued, the heavy purchase by divers and military personnel, speak volumes for its quality and value.

I recently corresponded with a nice gent named Mike who told me of his personal experience with Zodiacs. He sent me the nice pic.


Mike purchased the Zodiac Seawolf in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in the mid 1960's for $48.95. He wore the watch until discharged in the early 1970's. He then gave it to his baby brother when he purchased a Rolex GMT. Mike got the Seawolf back in the 1990's and has been wearing it ever since.

I asked Mike about the unique diver helmet bands and his thoughts on watches in general.

His response:

"The band is one I had made with scuba diver pins. I had the original pin cast into a mold then by the lost wax process cast them out of gold. They are soldered onto a Rolex two tone oyster band. The watch has been serviced a few times over the 40 years that I have had it. The last time was less than one year ago. Almost every one I went to dive school with that graduated purchased one at the B.X. The Sea Wolf was the best you could have if you were not rich. But in the back of your mind you always wanted a Rolex. Just the same as Scuba Pro was the best of the dive gear. Parkway was the best of the wet suits. Fifty dollars was a lot of money but it was about half of what a Submariner or GMT cost. The UDT patch was from the group in the early days of the war. The SHAD patch was a dive club from the 60s. The last military diving I performed was for the USCG in the late 80s and early 90s. I still wore the Zodiac most of the time back then. Today I wear the Zodiac one day and the GMT the next. This keeps both of them alive and working."

Great stuff.