are they original?

[zodiac-123]

hello...
sorry, my english is not so good.

Please, I need your help to determine if my zodiacs are original.

Yesterday, i bought two zodiac watches. They seem to be in great condition, so i decided to buy them both. One as a gift for a friend, and the other for me. They are modern models i guess.

The seller , is a shop that i trust - used to trust - however, i am not sure, if it was just the usual buyer remorse, or the cheap-looking metal bands. I started to think that they are fake, cheap zodiac replica. They all have identical bracelets, with zodiac logo printed not engraved. Time keeping is very bad for one of the watches and not accurate for the other.

1) the big watch
dial is grey, silver hands
printed zodiac logo , then below the center is a print of CORSAIR AUTOMATIC , and the usuall swiss made downward.
It has day and date at 3, the day indicator has two patterns in successive way, one in english, the usual SAT SUN , the other one is in spanish i think.
The crown is ordinary, the first tick adjusts day and date in opposite directions. The second tick controls time adjustment.

The back case has no indication for zodiac , only: AUTOMATIC STAINLESS STEEL .....
and a serial number of 1182 716
Time keeping is very bad.

2) The tiger eye
dial consists of a silver colour gradually turns to brown to reach a maximum at the horizontal line passing through the centre, it repeats the pattern for the other half. This pattern is called here as "tiger eye"

prints of : zodiac logo and AUTOMATIC below the center. and swiss made in the usual place.

crown is slightly elevated, it controls the date by pushing the crown. I forgot, it has day and date display at 3 o'clock position. crown has only one tick wich controls the time adjustment. I can't adjust the day display directly, i have to use hours hand to set the day (24 hours period).
As the big one, the back case has nothing to do with zodiac , the serial number is 762 690

that's it. I hope you can help me

Thank you

[Sea Wolf]

Can you post photos?  I am sure we can help you if we can see the watches.

[zodiac-123]

thanks sea wlf
here is a photo, the quality is not that perfect, but i hope it is enough.

[zodiac-123]

hi again

In the current history tab, i found this paragraph:

1990 - Willy Gad Monnier, a former Tag Heuer principal, buys the Zodiac brand and modernizes all Zodiac models with a definite Tag Heuer influence. This company went bankrupt in late 1997. These models can often be found on the Internet at bargain basement prices! This is because Swiss law protects the parts manufactures who are allowed to assemble these parts into watches and sell them off so that they do not get stuck with useless inventory.

can you explain this more, please
i am afraid that my watches were assembled some where outside zodiac quality standards.

Thank you

[Butch]

Those watches are from the later 1960's and early 1970's. They are original. They have nothing to do with the quote you have from the 1990's.

[Sea Wolf]

Have they ever been properly serviced?  That may explain the accuracy issues you have.

Click on the Watch Repair tab to read about this some more.

[jon p]

  they are nice examples of  60s-70s zodiac dress watches ! dials look very good, contact butches watch guy--a good cleaning and polishing will bring them back to their original glory. great additions to a zodiac collection.  JON P

[zodiac-123]

thanks butch, thank you guys

I am glad to have original zodiac watches. The tiger eye is a used watch with many scratches while the corsair is clean, and it even has the blastic tag on the back case. The seller had many of the corsair, i chose the grey dial one. He told me that they are unused brand new, stock quantity that the distributer decided to sell them using the back door of used watches shops. Which i can't understand. He told me that the ditributer sells them for 3000 SR, while this guy offesr them for 1500 SR each. I was able to get them for 600 SR each (160 USD) with the condition to take two at least.

The bracelet is terrible, and i suspect it to be genuine. I will do service for them and change the bands. I hope i can find original bracelet.

thanks again