New Wolf and a hacking question

[rplace]

Hey all the first Seawolf showd up today. I must say they are pretty small and thin. Wear nice and light, but might take some getting used to over my more modern, thick 44mm and 45.5 watches. Quick question and then on to the pix. I have what I belive to be a late 60s early 70s non-date since it has an acrylic bezel. Please correct me if I am wrong but metal bezels and acrylic are not interchangable so mine must be newer, plus the hour markers look like 60/70 models I have seen documented. Anyway mine does not hack and only seems to have one position to pull the crown out to. Is that normal? Since no date I would expect only one crown pull, but wondering about the non-hacking. Not sure of my watch skills to open it up and did not get a movement picture from the seller. He was a "watch guy" with great feedback so no reason to suspect the movement is non-zodiac inside...but thought I would check with you all on the hacking. Do they all hack?

When new did the bezel click hard as you rotated them. Mine seens to have very slight bumps all around, but easy to move in both directions nothing like a typical diver. Normal?

Overall this is in really nice shape. Minimal stratches to both case and crystal...they show up a lot more in the close pix than in person. Face it bright and clean, 3/6/9/12 markers are very green and still glow a bit. Hands are a bit faded but still very nice.

[jon p]

it should hack, probably in need of repairs. it probably needs cleaning also, send it to butches watch guy for a check up! nice watch, excellent condition, i also have a silver dial and i love it. bezel wont click much, the brass wears and you have a soft click. BWG can tighten it up some, he did mine but it still will be a fairly soft click. even new they werent a hard click such as a seiko diver.

[Butch]

OK, per the service catalogs ZodiacCatalogs.com, every movement from the 70 onwards had the "Seconds-stop system" (hacking) feature.

Having said that, I have seen many watches over the years that did not hack. Sometimes there is an issue and it gets yanked out. Sometimes the watchmaker forgets to put it back in. Once it is not there your guy cannot do much about it due to a lack of parts. When sending it in for a service you should definitely mention that it is not hacking, then see what he says. It is a feature, and is not necessary for the operation of the watch. Ditto for the 75B crown push "rapid date setting" (as Zodiac referred to it) which is always breaking.

Have I mentioned how much knowledge is available to the collector at www.ZodiacCatalogs.com?

[Cobber]

Not to sound like a know it all.  However, this is the sort of thing that would have worried me about this watch.  Unlike the black one that you picked up, to me this one showed signs of tampering.  Whether it's good or bad tampering would be for you to judge.  Because the hands and the dial don't match I would have been a little weary that there had been to many cooks in the kitchen so to speak.  I don't really know what the lume looked like brand new on these but I have seen NOS dials.  This could be either a re-lume or an NOS dial and I'm not savvy enough to know the difference.  I suspect that due to age even the NOS dials lose their ability to store energy for the lume.  Perhaps somebody here could shed some light on that.

Non-hacking is not the sort of thing that most people need but I know it's one of the reasons that Zodiac's were popular among military personnel.  Because that's one of the main reasons I dig Zodiacs so much it would bother me not having the feature.  Whether or not this model came with the feature may be open for debate but it would drive me crazy not knowing.  It's probably a personality defect of mine particularly since I've never synchronized my watch with anyone else.  I can just see my wife's face if I asked her to sync her watch with mine so we could meet at the food court in the mall at the exact same time.  In any case, it'll be interesting to know what your watch maker says.  I was not aware there were any Sea Wolfs of this era that came non-hacking so it wouldn't have occurred to me to ask the seller so I appreciate you posting this. 

[smithrjd]

I am not an expert on Zodiac's, but there were a couple of things that bothered about the watch. I have not seen that combo of dial hands and bezel before. (perhaps I have not looked enough) An enamel bezel on the early style non date watch dial and hands to me is odd. I also believe that it should "hack" I also have an early 60-65 Aerospace GMT, and it has the hack feature, but not the quick set date. It would be interesting to see what the wacthmaker has to say.  Nice clean watch however.

[smithrjd]

Well I went looking around again, and that combo seems to show many times. Especially the gray bezel like yours. I thought the metal bezels were 60's and the enamel/plastic bezels were 70's, with the date function mid to late 60's. Zodiacs are harder to define, say as opposed to an Omega or Breitling. Easy to date them or at least the case and movements.   

[Butch]

Zodiacs are harder to define, say as opposed to an Omega or Breitling.

Have I mentioned how much knowledge is available to the collector at www.ZodiacCatalogs.com?

[rplace]

Just another data point on the lume. It is by no means bright. I just meant that after all these years it still glows...better than I had expected. Nothing like a modern watch...and I have no idea what a 60/70s watch looked like. My understanding is they were totally different materials on the dial. This one has some lume to it...but not enough to read the time in a dark movie theater. At any rate I like it. Don't thnk it is a museum piece but saw adds for both date and non-date in the same adds @ $100 adn $110 IIRC. While not expert I think non-metal bezel and no date with those hands and that type of hour markers is "possible". Did not pay a forturne so think all is well. A fun ride so far so that is worth something. Now I need an orange one or yellow checkered racing bezel version.

Thanks all! Keep the info coming.

[Butch]

Those watches actually glow better if you charge them under a light. And I don't mean 10 min.

[Cobber]

Yea, this is definitely a model they offered.  I'm not questioning that.  However, due to the seemingly difference in lume age between the dial and hands I think there's been some fiddling going on.  Could be a case where someone got their hands on some NOS parts and combined them with some more worn parts.  The bezel looks particularly fresh.  The dial I'm not so sure about.  If it's a relume, an NOS, or just a very well preserved worn dial I'd be interested in knowing.