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.