Just fell in love with this one

[Light]

Hi everyone !

First Zodiac in my collection, i was checking for some vintage zodiac on the net and i just fell in love with this one when i saw it. I think this is a women watch from the 90's, anyone has more informations ?

Thanks a lot, glad to be part of the family

[Butch]

Tough to tell but that could be the man's model as in the 80's they were making watches smaller. So small that some of the men's watches has 60's and 70's ladies automatic movements i them as the men's movements were too big for the cases.

[Cobber]

Nice!!!! One of my favorite models

This model debuted in '76 at Basel Fair as the redesigned Kingline and adorned the cover of their '77 catalog (might have been on the '76 as well but we don't have a copy of that).  This was the same year a few notable watches debuted at Basel Fair such as the Genta designed Patek Phillip, Nautilus and IWC's new Ingenieur.  By the early eighties they had an even different design to replace this one and called it the New Kingline or the Kingline II (I don't remember which).

Interesting to note that this model didn't say Kingline the first year but did the next.  Since your's doesn't say Kingline, this is probably a first year Kingline with this new "contemporary" design.  The press release for Basel World did call it a Kingline even thought the dial didn't say it.  The Kingline was a top tier watch for Zodiac at the time.  Without the name on the dial and a lack of knowledge about Zodiac, I'd be surprised if anyone outside of this forum could even tell you what model this is.

The men's model is roughly 30mm not including crown.  I've been actively searching for a white dial and that's a beaut.
I'd be interested to know where you found it.  If I had seen it first and it is a 30mm watch, it would probably be sitting in my watch box or on my wrist right now.  I feel these are way under valued and both of the excellent condition ones I've purchased were easily justified in my mind for the price. 

I did see a good condition white dial somewhat recently but the listed case size led me to believe it was a woman's model. 
At 30mm the men's does not wear small in my opinion.  On square/rectangular watches, it has something to do with the width to height proportion as well as the diagonal measurement.

For instance a 38mm square dial watch looks massive compared to a 38mm round dial watch.  I find that a 33mm square watch is roughly equivalent to a 38-40mm round watch.  This one being rectangular in shape is probably what allows it to be even narrower and still have the wrist presence it does. 

If you do a search on this website for Kingline you'll find my posts with some more thoughts on this model.

Below are the two that I own.  One with it's integrated bracelet, the other with the leather strap.  Models with your bracelet and the bracelet on mine were available at the same time.  I believe Zodiac used solid gold on the screws/hour markers and bezels (gold bezel models) due to the fact I don't believe I've seen one yet that when badly worn and a bit mangled can I make out any base metal becoming exposed.  However, I have nothing else to base that assumption on.  On my gold bezel model, the bezel has the same brushed finish as the stainless model.  Not sure how common it would be to apply a brushed finish to a gold plated watch.  Seems a little risky but what the hell do I know.  Also, I've seen a couple models where the screws have been completely removed and holes have been left in the bezel.  Perhaps someone harvested the gold?

Important to note, the screws are not functional mechanically.  They are purely there to function as the hour markers.  Do not attempt to "unscrew" your bezel.  You'll just mangle the screws.  This is another reason I believe the screws are pure gold.  I've seen some bad examples where someone has tried to unscrew the bezels and the only thing visible is a mangled yellow blob where a screw once sat.  There are some models that have hour and minute markers on the dial and those do not have screws on the bezel.  I assume the bezel on both types affix to the watch the same way.

Cheers, and welcome to the forum!

EDIT; I just checked the catalog and I'm pretty sure this is a men's model.  The women's model with this bracelet had a far more severe taper after the first link.  Also, thought I would mention, it's the four screws on the back that hold the bracelet/strap in place.

[Butch]

Great help Cobber as I do not own any of these!

[Grossisten]

My father wore a watch like this daily for a period. As I have often mentioned he was the sole importer of Zodiacs to Denmark - in this case I think it makes a difference as he for marketing reasons changed watch frequently and often wore the top models at the time. Unfortunately this model is not in the small collection he left us, so I cannot compare yours to his. And I suspect his was a quartz version, even if I am far from sure.

I remember from my childhood that Zodiac produced three sizes of some models, mens, women's and unisex. It could be the case with this one perhaps?

Where have you found press releases from the Basel Fair, Cobber? Those would be very interesting to read.

Best

/Soren

[Cobber]

Grossisten, website is;
swisstime.ch

Zodiac had quartz versions of this watch, wouldn't be surprised if they were more expensive than the autos.  What's interesting about this is Zodiac didn't provide seconds hands on any of the automatic models with the screw type bezels.  However, I've seen a few of the quartz model versions with screw type bezels that did have a seconds hand.  I've wondered if this was to "show off" the quartz movement.

There were a few different press releases for this model.  One model (1978) had a solid gold case and bracelet, had diamonds in place of the screws and had a lapis azul dial.  Must have been a pretty expensive model.  Original '76 release mentions a "waterproof" case.  It's not mentioned what the crystal consists of but I'm thinking its sapphire. I'm pretty confident it is not acrylic, it has a real nice bevel cut to it that reflects real nicely.

Search function doesn't work great but it appears their records go back to 1963.
You have to include a model name with Zodiac to get any worthwhile results and verify the years being searched.
You can select different languages but some translations are a little wonky.
Zodiac must have had a massive female customer base, much of their press releases featured woman's watches.

[Butch]

As you know from the catalogs Cobber, there were a lot of gold and bejeweled ladies watches over the years. And almost all catalogs start off showing the ladies models. This is how the husband would get out of hot water come anniversaries, Christmas, or birthdays.

I knew a guy here (years ago, they have both passed now) that bought his wife a new Corvette every year, just so she would not bring up all the crap he had pulled throughout the year. It was a different time back then, a wife could be bribed to not harp on stuff. Today, not so much.

[Cobber]

As you know from the catalogs Cobber, there were a lot of gold and bejeweled ladies watches over the years. And almost all catalogs start off showing the ladies models. This is how the husband would get out of hot water come anniversaries, Christmas, or birthdays.

Yeah, I've thought about that a lot.  For many of the men's watches it's pretty clear the components were from outside sources that were often used by other brands but on these upper model (women's watches in particular) precious metal iterations I've wondered if Zodiac employed a team of artisans to craft these things. 

[Grossisten]

Thanks for the link to the website, very interesting!

At least half of Zodiacs potential customers would have been women for obvious reasons (even if the husbands actually bought the watches in many cases), it seems only natural ladies models would take prominent place in catalogues. And at a time when money couldn't be wasted on electronic/digital gadgets the most obvious gift for a woman after jewelry would probably have been a watch. In those more conservative times (at least up until 1970) women dressed accordingly and thus watches that were as much jewelry as timekeepers probably had a wider appeal than today.