I bought this watch in early 70s while teaching SCUBA. Served me faithfully for about 8 years while teaching and doing commercial diving, then sat in a drawer for about 40 years. Never had it cleaned or serviced and yet it started ticking after handling for a few minutes. BWG completed a full mechanical service in January 2023. All original except crystal which was replace by BWG. Two NATO straps included, both modified for single pass.

Model: 722 916
Case Serial #: 1801801
Caliber: 70-72
Movement Serial # 187360

Asking $1,800.

You cannot view this attachment.
You cannot view this attachment.
You cannot view this attachment.
You cannot view this attachment.

PM me.
But these are expensive.

Hello,

I'm searching for crystal (glass) for Zodiac Super Sea Wolf 75 Atm like the one on the pictureYou cannot view this attachment. .
Do you know where I can find one?
Thanks for advise.

Regards,
Hubert

If you are still looking for a white face / no date, I have one. A factory correct, signed, stainless band.
It will come with the 5 link ( across ). Serviced by Butch's watch guy.       mkgmoresense@gmail.com.
Selling down my small collection.

Try to buy a donor watch. There is a chance the gasket is good enough to be reused...

Anybody have a clue to find a New crystal gasket ?

thanks for the help,

I don't want to seem to be picking on the young, I actually like them. But I do belive all I said above to be true about younger collectors and watchmakers.

If you are hearing it from older watchmakers I would blame that on long not having parts and not a lot of experience servicing Zodiacs. Call it uninformed ineptitude for them then.

I am glad you have value for BWG's articles. I keep getting him to write more but he just yells, "You want me to write articles or fix watches?". I exclaim YES!! and he just snorts at me and hangs up.

One article I have been trying to get him to write about is all the things he has done, learned, and made jigs for in the last 20 years of servicing Zodiacs. He has perfected the best possible metal bezel restoration. He has had Astrographic crystals made AND improved their water tightness. And I know he has made quite a few jigs for special purpose jobs that don't come up on every watch service but makes it easier when it does. His band work is nothing short of amazing. He has learned how to replate various metals. It would not surprise me to find out he has manufactured a part when needed like the old watchmakers used to have to do. He buys all the parts he comes across knowing they will eventually be used.

All of these things he does not get credit for because no one knows it. I am sure he services more Zodiacs than any other watchmaker in the entire world. He is expensive but not Ron Gordon expensive. His QA process takes longer than the servicing process. Years a go I convinced him to charge for his time and drive away the less serious collectors that want the watch back in 2 weeks and bitch the entire time that he is taking too long.

Sorry, I did not mean to start worshiping at the BWG alter, again, but he simply does not get the credit he is surely and positively due. He does more for Zodiac collectors than anyone else in the world, and he does it better. And has a world wide clientele to prove it.

Those two articles by Ultra-Vintage are absolutely brilliant by the way.

Thanks Butch, more useful perspective on this topic. Great input.

I'm fully aware of the service organisation of yesteryear, I saw that in operation with my own eyes. That was part of the promise to customers, you could have your watch fixed anywhere in the world by an expert watchmaker.

This resentment towards Zodiacs is not just an issue with young watchmakers, also middle age and older ones have come up with opinions of the sort I referred to in my first post. I kind of get why from the picture that is being painted in this thread. What a shame that this is the state of things.

I'm annoyed when people claim that Zodiacs were not well made, my father never bragged nor exaggerated but as a trained watchmaker he was genuinely proud of the Zodiac watches he sold - as was my grandfather that was even better trained technically than my father. Its a shame they are not here to teach the uninformed (including me).....

There is so much to unpack here.

•   Younger watchmakers
•   Younger collectors
•   Scarcity of parts
•   Why a sealed barrel?
•   The offset canon pinion

"Back in the day" men bought a watch. They then expected to wear it for the rest of their life. And they only had one watch. When it broke, they got it fixed. Why? Because it was cheaper than buying a new watch of course. (Excluding gifted watches that may or may not have supplanted his original watch!) It was not until the 1980's that Swatch taught men it was OK to have (and even wear!) more than one watch. And you could because they were inexpensive plastic watches with quartz (yes, I can spell it correctly) movements. They taught us that you could have a watch for every suit or mood. And you could we several on each arm. Google it.

The Zodiacs we collect are 50, 60, even 70 years old. They have been long neglected, never regularly serviced, pulled out of a dead guy's dresser and worn until it stopped, and then sold off on eBay. Add to this all the fumble fingered watchmakers that think they can fix anything with hands in a case. Today's watchmakers find out they can't get parts and the Zodiac movements are not like others when it comes to a service. AND they take time to properly service. The parts in our watches are more often so worn that it takes a true master to repair them.

Slight detour: My first Zodiac bought for the collection I wanted to start in the mid-90s was a very thin 1960's stainless steel dress watch with a 17-jewel manual wind movement. I took it to my local watchmaker in Wilmington, DE upon receipt. Interestingly enough he was from Puerto Rico and has actually worked in the Zodiac repair facility there and had parts for them. When I went to pick it up after he called and said it was done, he had two things to share with me. One, this was an exquisite, extremely accurate, watch and I should be very proud of it. The second thing, as he knew I was beginning my collection, was that he was happy to service any watch that was for ME, but if I was reselling it, he was not interested in doing the repair. He said he could service a Rolex faster and make 4 times the money on that repair.

Today's younger collector only knows the Internet. They do not go to NAWCC watch shows. (Do they even have those anymore? Rhetorical question, we fell out over 20 years ago, I don't care.) They don't buy watch books or do proper research. (The history tab above has one of the lowest pages read metric on this website.) The Internet is filled with places like Reddit and Facebook where everyone fancies themselves an expert. And we know they are not, but not so the younger collector, I fear.

Lack of new parts for a vintage Zodiac is simply due to the fact that they original owners sold the brand and all brand owners afterwards were only interested in putting out new models that reflected their visions. They did not care about the original models nor did they keep having the parts made. The original brand owners used sealed barrels and offset canon pinions as they were easily replaced during a service. Ditto for the bezels. There once was a Zodiac worldwide trained maintenance and repair organization authorized to service these watches. Only Zodiac Agents had the necessary testing tools and parts that enabled them to service them. Back then almost every jewelry store selling Zodiacs has a factory trained watchmaker in the back of the store.

The sealed barrel made sense. You did not have to service it, just pull the old one out and drop a new one in and move on to the next watch repair. More info on this can be found here: https://www.vintagezodiacs.com/zforums/index.php/topic,2134.0.html

As for the offset canon pinion, I would refer you to this most excellent post rather than regurgitate it here. https://www.vintagezodiacs.com/zforums/index.php/topic,2097.0.html

The Internet can be a wild and dangerous place full of misinformation, half-truths, and outright lies by "experts". (This is why I never refer to myself as a/the Zodiac Expert!) I actually mentioned this to my doctor recently and he agreed and said never go to WebMD, but usually the Mayo Clinic can be trusted.

So now you have the musings of an old man on this topic. Not sure I can offer anymore but will always try to answer questions.