Zodiac Super Sea Wolf Ceramic Compression Diver Review

When you talk about the origins and early development of dive watches two names initially come up, those being the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms and Rolex Submariner. For good reason, Blancpain and Rolex were the first watch brands to release what we would call a dive watch in terms of today's standards. They were robust sports watches that had sufficient water resistance with lumed dials and a rotating dive bezel. Last week we reviewed the Master Grand Vert from Squale and touched upon Squale's early involvement in producing waterproof cases for brands like Blancpain. Another name not brought up in the same breath as Blancpain and Rolex is Zodiac.

Today we have a super interesting watch from Zodiac in for review, but before we get into that watch, let's first take a look at the history of Zodiac, including how the brand helped pioneer the dive watch. Zodiac was found in 1882 in Le Locle, Switzerland by the son of a watchmaker, Ariste Calame. Calame setup his workshop with the singular goal of creating the most accurate timepieces possible. The pocket watches produced in Calame's workshop were extremely unique and became immensely popular.



By 1908, Calame's watch company had become one of the fastest growing companies in Switzerland. It was that year that the brand name "Zodiac" was patented. Zodiac then moved past a brand run out of a small workshop into a fully vertically integrated manufacture that was capable of producing its own movements. The highlight of the pocket watch era for Zodiac came in 1924 when the brand produced their calibre 1617 powered extra-flat pocket watch.

By the 1930s and 40s the world has moved on from pocket watches to wristwatches. Not being one to rest on past successes, Zodiac quickly transitioned into manufacturing wristwatches. Zodiac produced a shock-proof system with a z-shaped spring clip over the balance wheel which was launched along with one of the first Swiss made automatic wristwatches in 1930. 1937 brought along a wristwatch with an 8 day power reserve, a figure that is still rare in today's watches. Zodiac capped off that period in their history by releasing a watch with a power reserve indicator on the dial in 1949, which was one of only two watches in existence at the time with that complication.



Even though 1953 wasn't that long ago, the full details about the release of the Fifty Fathoms and Submariner are a bit murky. Both brands claim to be the first to release a commercially available dive watch, and there are reasons to believe each of them. Typically most believe that Blancpain did in fact beat Rolex to release with the Fifty Fathoms though. While Blancpain and Rolex were positioning their dive watches to militaries and professional divers, Zodiac in the same year released their Sea Wolf targeted at the masses of recreational divers.

The Sea Wolf used many of the features seen in modern dive watches, but also differed in a few key aspects. The caseback of the Sea Wolf was pressed on instead of screwed-down which would become the standard in dive watches. The dial markers were luminous, but instead of using harmless luminous material we have today, they were filled with radioactive radium. While the Sea Wolf did have a rotating bezel, it was bi-directional instead of the safety derived uni-directional bezels we see today. Finally the watch was also rather small at 35 mm, which is rather petite for today's dive watches. Everyone was still trying to define what a dive watch was back then and the Zodiac Sea Wolf did just as good of a job as the early Fifty Fathoms and Submariners did, offering a solid 100 meters of water resistance and an automatic movement.



The original Sea Wolf eventually evolved into the Super Sea Wolf by the end of the 1950s. The Super Sea Wolf used a new crown/stem system and a vastly improved case back to take the watch all the way down to 750 meters of water resistance. The new screw down case back replaced the press on case back of the original Sea Wolf and along with the improved crown was critical in seeing Zodiac increase the water resistance by over seven times in a few years. The case diameter of the Super Sea Wolf also increased to over 40 mm, which is more in line with dive watch case sizes seen today.

While most Swiss watch companies experienced an extremely rough period in their histories during the quartz crisis of the 1960s and 70s, Zodiac actually flourished. In 1968 the brand released the first Swiss made electric watch in the Dynotron. In 1977, Zodiac kept true to their original values of producing high precision watches, even during the move to quartz powered pieces, when they released the world's first quartz watch to receive an official chronometer certification. A year later the brand also released the world's slimmest quartz watch.



The quartz crisis decades didn't mean that Zodiac stopped producing mechanical watches. In 1970 the brand released the Astrographic, which was a mystery dial watch with floating discs for the hour and minute hands along with a small moon orbiting the dial for the seconds hand. 1970 also saw the release of the Olympos which saw the floating hands of the Astrographic paired with a super interesting angular "manta ray" case.

The following decades were rather quiet for Zodiac until the brand was revitalized in 2012. The late 1990s saw Zodiac go into bankruptcy and in 2001 the brand was acquired by the Texas based Fossil Group. The next ten years saw Zodiac become a Swiss fashion brand and it wasn't until 2012, when the brand was restored back to their legacy of producing top quality mechanical watches.

The catalyst behind this was the Fossil Group's investment into movement producer Swiss Technology Production (STP). In 2012 STP and Zodiac launched the STP 1-11, which gave Zodiac its own in-house automatic caliber, which allowed them to move away from generic quartz powered movements. With a new movement in hand, Zodiac overhauled their brand strategy and decided to focus on their archived models moving forward.



The brand moved their headquarters to the Antima building in Biel-Bienne and then launched their heritage collection. This meant that legacy models like Super Sea Wolf returned back to the collection. Zodiac had finally found its soul again and started to produce top tier mechanical watches that could compete with the best of Switzerland.

Initial Thoughts

The model we're going to looking at today is actually one of the newest additions to the Super Sea Wolf collection. A few years ago Zodiac introduced a trio of Super Sea Wolfs that were crafted out of white ceramic. They were colorful and fun versions of a very serious dive watch made out of a material that is tricky to work with and reserved mostly for five and six figure watches in ceramic. The trio of watches have always interested me, so I decided to reach out to Zodiac and see if they could send us one to review.



The model we received was the white ceramic Super Sea Wolf with a blue dial and light blue rubber strap. When the watch arrived, the first thing I noticed about it was of course its white ceramic case. I'm very used to black ceramic watches and currently own a matte black ceramic IWC Big Pilot Top Gun Perpetual Calendar and my wife has a polished black ceramic Hublot Big Bang All Black. I am not that familiar with white ceramic though; I've only handled a few of the matte white ceramic IWC Lake Tahoe pilot's watches previously. The white ceramic on the Super Sea Wolf is unlike anything I've seen on a watch before. The ceramic is done in a high polish and even looks somewhat iridescent. This gives the Super Sea Wolf a truly unique look unlike anything I've seen on a watch before. The only possible watch I can think of that has a somewhat similar ceramic is the original Chanel J12.

The next thing that I noticed during my initial time with the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf Ceramic was the weight of the watch. The Super Sea Wolf is a decent sized watch at 41 mm and if the watch was made out of stainless steel would weigh well over 100 grams. Being crafted out of ceramic the watch weighed right under 100 grams at 99 grams. 100 grams is pretty much where I like to be on a larger dive watch on a strap, so the Super Sea Wolf was right in my goldilocks zone. Unlike carbon and titanium, I can't think of any ceramic cased watches that use a ceramic case back, maybe for durability reasons. The case back of the Super Sea Wolf is done in stainless steel, so that does add a bit of weight to the watch.



The final thing I noticed during my first encounter with the Super Sea Wolf ceramic was the radiant sunburst blue dial. I'm typically not a fan of blue on a watch dial, and would have originally preferred the long sold out orange variant of the Super Sea Wolf, but Zodiac changed my mind with this dial. In poorer lighting situations the dial appears a very dark blue nearly black, but in direct sunlight the dial just explodes. At certain angles, the dial even appears to have a gradient to it. Paired with the light blue tropic rubber strap, the complete design of the watch just works.

A Closer Look

Now that we've gone over the history of Zodiac as well as my initial thoughts on the Super Sea Wolf Ceramic, let's now look at the technical specifications of the watch. The Super Sea Wolf is crafted out of polished white ceramic and has a case diameter 41.2 mm and a lug to lug length of 51.2 mm. The watch weighs 99 grams including the rubber strap and stainless steel pin buckle. At its thickest point the Super Sea Wolf is 13.6 mm tall.

The Super Sea Wolf uses a slightly domed and raised sapphire crystal with an anti-reflective coating. The curve to the sapphire isn't too severe and doesn't cause much to any distortion when looking at different angles. Underneath the crystal clear sapphire is the amazing blue radiant sunburst dial. As mentioned earlier, the dial is very dynamic and can shift between a dark nearly black blue all the way to a bright gradient blue in direct sunlight. Around the outside of the dial is a bluish off-white minute ring. Each minute is represented by a thin blue hash mark with each five minute interval getting a thicker mark.



Moving in sees each hour represented by a large block applied hour marker. 3, 6, 9 and 12 o'clock get slightly larger markers. These markers are coated with Super-LumiNova which appears white in normal lighting and has a bluish-green glow in low light. There are three centrally mounted hands on the dial of the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf being the hour, minute and seconds hands. The hour and minute hands are large block style with the hour hand being done in white and the minute hand done in a matching light blue. The seconds hand is slender and done in white with a lumed blocked tip. The hands are all covered with matching Super-LumiNova to the hour markers.

Finishing off the dial is the Zodiac and Super Sea Wolf branding found at 12 o'clock printed in white. At 6 o'clock is printed "Automatic Chronometer" in white along with "200M/660FT" printed in blue. Finally "Swiss Made" is printed at the very bottom of the dial just above the minute track. Overall the dial of the Super Sea Wolf is extremely functional, yet has enough colorful elements to be a conversation starter.

The bezel of the Super Sea Wolf is also done in polished white ceramic. A lot of brands would use a steel or titanium bezel with a ceramic insert, but Zodiac went the extra mile and crafted the bezel fully out of ceramic. The bezel is uni-directional and requires 120 clicks to complete a full rotation. The bezel has a great feel to it and there is no back play with it ratcheting firmly into each position complete with a satisfying click.



The bezel also has a very aggressive scalloping to it and should easily be able to be used with dive gloves on. The bezel markers are rather minimalistic with only 30 getting a blue Arabic numeral and each 5 minute period marked with a blue hash mark. Each minute from 0 to 15 have their own marker which alternate between hash marks and triangles. 0/60 is set with a large blue triangle which has a matching lumed dot on it for use with low light diving.

Looking at the profile of the Super Sea Wolf you can see how slim the mid case is and also a nice down turn to the lugs to follow the shape of your wrist. The right hand side of the watch features a white ceramic screw-down crown topped with a black Zodiac logo. The screw-down crown aids in the 200 meters of water resistance. Un-screwing the crown allows you to manually wind the automatic movement in the resting position. There are no calendar functions on the Super Sea Wolf, so there is only one additional crown position. Pulling the crown out to position one stops the seconds hand and allows you to set the time. Pushing the crown back in causes no jump in the minute hand and getting the crown to catch to screw back in doesn't take much extra effort.



Flipping the watch over shows off the solid brushed stainless steel case back complete with a polished engraving of the Zodiac logo. Important information about the watch is also engraved around the outside of the logo. The case back is screwed down to help with water resistance. Underneath the case back beats the Swiss made STP1-11 automatic movement. The movement is produced by brand partner Swiss Technology Production for Zodiac. The watch offers 44 hours of power reserve and beats at 28,800 vph. On our timegrapher the STP1-11 showed an accuracy of +5 seconds per day when averaged out over several positions. This is an extremely accurate result and is a great sign of the types of movements STP produces being in-line with Sellita and ETA movements we have tested.

The Super Sea Wolf has a lug width of 20 mm and comes on a light blue tropic rubber strap. The strap choice is perfect, since this is the exact style of strap you'd see on a vintage diver. The strap tapers down to 18 mm at the brushed stainless steel pin buckle compete with a Zodiac logo and polished edges. The taper on the non-buckle side of the strap is much more aggressive and goes down to 12 mm. The strap is incredibly supply and was comfortable from the first time I put it on. Having a lug width of 20 mm means that the Super Sea Wolf Ceramic can accept virtual endless amounts of aftermarket straps if you'd prefer to pair the watch with something different strap wise.



On The Wrist

With a lug to lug length of just over 50 mm, the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf falls perfectly into the size watch that I prefer for my 7.25 inch wrist with a 55 mm flat area. The watch covered my wrist nicely with no overhang and the rubber strap did a great job of keeping the watch centered. Also with the watch being under 100 grams, the Super Sea Wolf mostly disappeared while I was wearing it, only being there when I wanted to look at the watch or get the time.

These two facts made the Super Sea Wolf Ceramic the perfect watch for running boring everyday errands with. Even during very extended wearing sessions there was never even the slightest feeling of wrist fatigue caused by the watch. I could easily see the Super Sea Wolf Ceramic being a great daily wearer due to its extreme comfort. The white ceramic does make the watch a bit difficult to pull off in more formal settings, but Zodiac does make a black ceramic version that might suit those types of situations better. The white ceramic version is much more of a casual wearing watch.

The Super Sea Wolf went great with my typical dress of a black t-shirt, shorts and sneakers. The dark blue of the dial and light blue of the strap didn't clash too much with my more monotone style. It would be interesting to put the watch on a white Marine Nationale parachute style strap though. I think the all white and blue look would really look great and be even lower weight than the rubber strap and pin buckle. That look would go well in the winter as well as summer.



To test the legibility of a watch I use a simple test where I see how easy it is to tell the time at just a glance while driving. In this test dive watches with their high contrast dials and large markers do the best, while complicated and skeleton watches do the worst since they focus more on design aesthetics than legibility. I wasn't too surprised that the Super Sea Wolf Ceramic aced this test with it only taking a brief moment to get my bearings and decipher the time. Only adding Arabic numerals would have slightly helped with the time it took me to tell the time, but it would be marginal and drastically change the design of the watch. With the amount of lume used on the dial, low light time telling was also a breeze.

When wearing the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf Ceramic out on my everyday errands as well as out to dinner and drinks I noticed a ton of people looking at the watch. I even had a few people comment and ask questions about the watch. The super unique and in your face look of the white ceramic case had a lot to do with this. Also the light blue rubber strap grabs a lot of attention as well. This really isn't a wallflower of a watch and expect it to grab attention when you wear it out. The black ceramic version might be a better choice if you want a more subtle watch. Everyone I showed the watch too was really impressed by the white ceramic case and awesome blue dial. Most everyone was also shocked by the price, feeling the watch should have a higher asking price.



Value and Position in the Market

Speaking of price, the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf Ceramic retails for $1,795. For that price you're getting a truly unique and great looking polished white ceramic case and serious 200 meters of water resistance. The watch is also powered by a super accurate in-house movement produced by STP for Zodiac. Now is the time of the review where we look at other watches with similar features and specifications to see how the Super Sea Wolf holds up value wise.

First up we have the pioneers of ceramic in Rado with their Captain Cook which has a 43 mm case crafted out of black ceramic. The watch does come on a full ceramic bracelet instead of a strap, adding some cost. The Captain Cook is powered by a Swiss made ETA movement with 80 hours of power reserve and boasts 300 meters of water reserve. These are slightly higher specs than the Super Sea Wolf, but the RADO does cost over two times more than the Zodiac at $4,600.



Next up is the Black Bay Ceramic from Tudor which has a 41 mm black ceramic case. The Black Bay is powered by a manufacture movement with 70 hours of power reserve and the same 200 meters of water resistance. The Black Bay Ceramic is also much more expensive than the Super Sea Wolf at $5,700.

Moving on is the J12 from Chanel which has a 38 mm case crafted out of white ceramic. The J12 is powered by a manufacture movement with 70 hours of power reserve and has the same 200 meters of water resistance as the Super Sea Wolf. The J12 is a bit smaller than the other watches we're comparing to the Super Sea Wolf and also comes on a full white ceramic bracelet. The J12 is much more expensive than the Super Sea Wolf at $8,350.

Finally we have the Supermarine Full Ceramic from Bremont which has a 43 mm case made out of black ceramic. The Supermarine is powered by a modified Sellita SW200-1 and has 50 hours of power reserve. The Supermarine does boast an impressive 500 meters of water resistance though. Once again the Supermarine commands a much higher price than the Super Sea Wolf at $6,450.



Looking at the above four watches you can see how great of a value the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf Ceramic is. The next closest ceramic diver comes in over two times the cost of the Super Sea Wolf. The Zodiac is also able to offer similar specs as its competitors for a much lower price. The white ceramic of the Super Sea Wolf is also the most eye-catching of the bunch, especially when paired with the dynamic blue dial. The area where the Zodiac suffers the most is in its power reserve. 44 hours isn't the longest power reserve, but it is more than ample to get past a day of non-wearing. Even 70 hours isn't much to write home about and I really only see power reserve as a notable feature when the reserve is five days or longer. I'd imagine most people would use the Super Sea Wolf as a weekend or vacation watch, so the shorter power reserve shouldn’t be too much of a concern.

Closing Thoughts

So in the end, is the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf Ceramic for me? Well yes it is, and I'll get to that in a second. In a shocking turn of events, the Super Sea Wolf Ceramic actually ended up being for my wife. During the time we had the watch in for review; my wife pretty much grabbed it from the safe every time she left the house. She couldn't stop telling me how much she loved the watch. Even on her smaller wrist and 5'2 frame the watch just worked. I guess it had something to do with the white ceramic making the watch appear smaller on wrist.



Ok so back to me, I really do think the Super Sea Wolf Ceramic is a great watch and would love to have it in my collection. Part of me still wonders if I'd prefer the sold out orange version over the blue, but in the end I'm not really sure since the blue just works so well with the white ceramic. The case diameter and lug to lug length are perfectly aligned with the size of watch I collect personally as well. The under 100 gram weight is also a specification I try to stick to with my personal watches where possible. Finally I really only collect watches made out of high tech low weight materials like carbon, ceramic and titanium. The Zodiac Super Sea Wolf Ceramic ticks off all of these boxes.

Then there is the history of Zodiac in the early development of dive watches. Everyone talks about Blancpain and Rolex when it comes to the first dive watches, but more people need to take notice of Zodiac and the original Sea Wolf. I love the early stories of the first dive watches and even picked up a Blancpain Fifty Fathoms 500 Fathoms since I got so into the lore of the Fifty Fathoms. That even turned me on to Squale and their work on early waterproof cases for brands such as Blancpain. Zodiac fully deserves to have a seat at the table with all these brands since they also released a capable dive watch in 1953.

So would I then recommend the Super Sea Wolf for somebody looking for a unique yet serious dive watch? After spending a few weeks with the Super Sea Wolf and my wife and myself falling in love with it, I would 100% recommend the watch to other collectors looking for this type of timepiece. Even just based on price, you can't find a full ceramic diver anywhere near the asking price of the Super Sea Wolf. The watch also runs of a very accurate in-house movement developed by partner STP for Zodiac. If anything, it's refreshing to see a watch not running on the super common Sellita and ETA base calibers. The Super Sea Wolf is a more than capable dive watch with a full 200 meters of water resistance as well. Finally the watch just looks amazing in person. The combination of the polished white ceramic case and radiant blue dial are just the chef's kiss. I'd highly recommend taking a look at the Super Sea Wolf Ceramic in person at an authorized dealer if you can; it's really one of those watches that needs to be seen in the metal (ceramic) to be fully appreciated.



I'd really like to thank Zodiac for sending us this Super Sea Wolf Ceramic to review. It served as a great physical introduction to the brand and we came away blown away with it. So far as it being a watch both my wife and myself could see adding to our personal collections. I'm really excited to see what Zodiac has planned for the near future and believe we should be getting some new pieces in for review rather soon from the brand.

For more information about the Super Sea Wolf Ceramic please visit : Zodiac

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: ZO9590

Retail Price: $1,795

Case Size: 41.2 mm

Lug to Lug: 51.2 mm

Thickness: 13.6 mm

Weight: 99 grams

Case Material: Polished White Ceramic

Bezel: Uni-Directional Polished White Ceramic with 120 Clicks Strap: Blue Tropic Rubber Strap with a Stainless Steel Pin Buckle

Movement: Swiss Made STP In-House STP1-11 Automatic Movement

Functions: Hours, Minutes and Seconds

Power Reserve: 44 Hours

Water Resistance: 200 Meters