Zodiac

Ariste Calame founded Zodiac in Le Locle in 1882, and for its first seventy years it was a conventional Swiss maker of pocket watches and then wristwatches, with an early interest in automatic winding.

Its place in watch history rests on 1953. The Sea Wolf arrived that year as a purpose-built diver's watch, water-resistant to 200 metres with a rotating bezel — the same year as the Fifty Fathoms and the first Submariner, and from a company far smaller than either. It became standard issue for a good many navy and commercial divers, and remains the model the brand is defined by.

Zodiac spent the 1960s and 1970s pushing colour harder than most, with the Sea Wolf and Super Sea Wolf appearing in oranges, greens and two-tone bezels that look thoroughly contemporary now and looked eccentric then.

The quartz crisis hit it as it hit everyone in Le Locle, and the name passed through several owners before Fossil Group acquired it in 2001.

The modern collection is built almost entirely on reissues of that 1950s and 1960s catalogue — Super Sea Wolf, Olympos, Grandrally — on Swiss automatic movements, in limited runs.

Zodiac holds 20 models, from £949 to £3,799. Half cost less than £1,699, and a quarter less than £1,399. 20 of 20 are automatic. Prices are checked nightly against the retailers’ own feeds.

1882

Founded in Le Locle by Ariste Calame.

1930

Early work on automatic movements.

1953

The Sea Wolf arrives, one of the first true dive watches.

1970

Super Sea Wolf models push colour and case design.

2001

Acquired by Fossil Group.