Zodiac x GiantMouse Super Sea Wolf Review

When it comes to dive watches, few brands hold as much respect from me as Zodiac. While Blancpain and Rolex get the fame of producing the first two dive watches, Zodiac was right there with them in 1953 with the Sea Wolf. Recently we reviewed the outstanding white ceramic Super Sea Wolf and were thoroughly impressed with it. Today we will be reviewing another Super Sea Wolf, but this one has an interesting twist to it, and an equally interesting packaging.

Before we get into the watch we will be covering today, let's first go over a quick history of Zodiac. Zodiac is actually a very old and established Swiss watch brand, which was founded by Ariste Calame in Le Locle in 1882. Ariste was the son of a watchmaker and when starting his manufacture, his one goal was to produce the most precise and reliable timepieces possible. The motto of the small workshop was "Finest Swiss Quality", which has served the brand for well over a century.



When Ariste's son, Louis Ariste Calame, completed his formal watchmaking training, he took over the business in 1895. Knowing the manufacture needed recognizable branding, Louis settled on the name "Zodiac". By 1908 Zodiac had started to produce their own calibers and movements in-house. This allowed Zodiac to flourish into one of the fastest growing watch manufactures in all of Switzerland. With this growth, Zodiac started to shift their focus to the emerging wristwatch market.

Before completing the move to solely producing wristwatches, Zodiac was able to produce the world's first extra-flat pocket watch, the Triumph, in 1924. In 1930, Zodiac patented a z-shaped spring clip over the balance wheel that resulted in extreme shock absorption. Zodiac then closed out the 1930s by releasing a watch with an astonishing 8 days of power reserve in 1937.

After World War II completed, Zodiac kept innovating and was quick to release what might be the world's first sports watch with an automatic movement, the Autographic, in 1949. Apart from having a rather rare for the time automatic movement, the Autographic also featured a power reserve gauge, an unbreakable crystal, a radium dial and a waterproof case. Adding some of these elements up, you can clearly see where Zodiac was heading in a few short years.



While the history books will credit Blancpain and their Fifty Fathoms as being the first dive watch, Zodiac along with Rolex would release full on dive watches very soon after. The Rolex Submariner and Zodiac Sea Wolf released just months after the Fifty Fathoms. Working off of what was already in place with the Autographic, the Sea Wolf would evolve into a purpose built dive watch with an incredible 200 meters of water resistance, twice as much as the other early dive watches. Also like the early Fifty Fathoms and Submariners, the Sea Wolf was marketed at a very attractive price and became extremely popular with amateur and professional divers.

The 1960s and 70s were a time of expansion into the skies for Zodiac. In 1960 the brand introduced the Aerospace GMT, which was targeted to frequent travelers during the booming jet age. The watch featured a 24 hour GMT hand and two color rotating bezel, helping flyers quickly keep track of home and local times. The late 60s and early 70s would see Zodiac get very futuristic with their space-age design language. This resulted in the mystery dial Astrographic and manta ray shaped Olympos.

The 1970s also saw the introduction of the Super Sea Wolf. This watch took saw the 200 meter depth rating of the original Sea Wolf skyrocket to an astonishing 750 meters. This caught the attention of the U.S. Navy Seals, who would go on to use the Super Sea Wolf as a tactical instrument. The 70s were also rough on Zodiac on two fronts. First the Zodiac Killer of the age used the same symbol as the brand's logo to sign his letters to law enforcement and the media, giving Zodiac an undeserved negative look. The 70s also brought upon the Quartz Crisis, which saw cheap and super accurate Japanese quartz movements completely overrun the world of watches. Zodiac was able to produce the world's first LCD watch with a chronometer certification in 1977 though.



What followed was a time of Zodiac being bought and sold over the next few decades, finally finding a stable home in the Fossil Group in 2001. The plan was for Zodiac to be the groups premiere Swiss made brand. At first it was hard for the newly acquired Zodiac to find it footing, but after looking back at their history, the brand was able to once again find success. In 2014, Zodiac revived models inspired by the vintage Sea Wolf and Super Sea Wolf. Today Zodiac is known by watch enthusiasts for producing serious dive watches which respect the past but are also known for not being scared to experiment with color and material.

It is Zodiac's exact blend of rugged utility and bold design that makes them a great partner to work with knife producers, GiantMouse, on a collaboration featuring a Super Sea Wolf and bespoke knife. One the founders of GiantMouse, Jim Wirth, is a huge watch nerd and fan of Zodiac. Jim actually formed a relationship with the team at Zodiac during a WindUp Watch Fair. GiantMouse's story starts out in 2015, when Danish knifemakers and designers Jens Anso and Jesper Voxnaes along with American entrepreneur, Jim Wirth (who we just spoke about), decided they could build a better "mousetrap", when compared to other high-end knife manufactures. The goal of GiantMouse was to produce knives that had the highest production quality and designs, which were available at a fair and obtainable price. Another huge piece of the puzzle would be that GiantMouse would also be very involved with their customers and the broader EDC community as well.

Quality is of the utmost importance to GiantMouse, with each new design being thoroughly reviewed and tested by the team during each stage of prototyping and production. Everything from the material choice to the finishing is looked at under a microscope to make sure the final knife is worthy of carrying the GiantMouse name. In the end, each and every GiantMouse knife is one that any member of the team would be proud to carry themselves.



GiantMouse lives by the motto "Knives Done RIGHT", just like Zodiac does under "Finest Swiss Quality". In 2025, GiantMouse started a new phase after their first successful decade, now led fully by Jesper Voxnaes and Jim Wirth. While still producing top tier knives that combine utility, design and quality, GiantMouse is also looking at exploring new opportunities and markets they had not looked at previously. This brings us directly to GiantMouse's collaboration with Zodiac.

Initial Thoughts

When the Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse arrived, the first thing we noticed about the set was the massive box it came in. Back in the 2000s it wasn't too uncommon for special watches to come in oversized boxes, but over the last two decades box sizes have been getting smaller and smaller. The Zodiac x GiantMouse set comes in a large blue box with orange print featuring the logos of both brands. The text "Essential Tools for Life Below the Surface" is also printed underneath the logos. When you open the box up, you are greeted with individual boxes for the watch and knife that have a wave graphic on them. Removing these slip covers lets you then see the matching black boxes for the watch and knife. There is also a card with a note from Jim Wirth explaining the collaboration.



The next thing I noticed was when I opened the larger top box to reveal the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse. The GiantMouse is somewhat similar to a non-limited edition Super Sea Wolf that featured a light blue bezel with an orange minute ring and dial highlights. That model came on a stainless steel bracelet and had a silver dial. The GiantMouse variant swaps out the silver dial for a black dial which appeals much more to me. Also the bracelet has been replaced with a rubber strap and pin buckle which I prefer as well. The solid caseback also features the GiantMouse logo and states the watch as being a "Giant Mouse Edition". Overall, the changes to the watch are subtle, but I vastly prefer it to the previous Super Sea Wolf.

The final thing I noticed was tucked away in the smaller lower box. This is of course the GiantMouse dive knife produced to match the look and feel of the Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse. The colors of the Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse takes inspiration from the exotic colorways of 1970s Zodiacs, so the GiantMouse dive knife adopts the same orange and black hues found on the watch. The dive knife also features a blunt tip to stop accidental punctures, as well as a line cutter. The partially serrated blade also comes in handy when needing to cut and saw something quickly. The handle of the knife is crafted out of black anodized aluminum which then has the orange G10 inlay. Proving its worth as a diver, there are also water pass-throughs in the handle and blade. The GiantMouse dive knife is essentially what the Super Sea Wolf would resemble in knife form and a perfect pairing for the watch.



A Closer Look

Now that we've gone over the history of both Zodiac and GiantMouse, as well as my initial impressions on the set, let's now take a close look at both the Super Sea Wolf and the dive knife. The Zodiac Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse is crafted out of stainless steel and has a case diameter of 41.8 mm when measuring the bezel and around 40.4 mm when just measuring the case and not the bezel overhang. The lug to lug length is 49.9 mm, which is pretty much right on the sweet spot of 50 mm that I prefer in watches. The Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse is 14.5 mm thick at its tallest point and weighs in at 112 grams on our scale when attached to the rubber strap and buckle.

The Super Sea Wolf features a flush slightly domed sapphire crystal with an anti-reflective coating. Underneath the crystal clear sapphire, you can see the black dial which has a sun-ray finish to it. The dial has raised tri-angular hour markers which have an orange border and are covered with yellow hued Super-LumiNova that glow a brilliant green in low light. The older Super Sea Wolf differs here, since it had slightly inward spaced block hour markers instead. Around the outside of the dial is the orange minute ring with each minute printed in a slim black hash mark.



There are three centrally mounted hands on the dial of the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse, being the hour, minute and seconds hands. The Hour hand is polished and has a large arrow filled with matching lume to the hour markers. The minute hand is done in orange and is long and slender with an arrow tip. The tip is covered in lume which glows a bluish green to match the bezel's lumed pip. The seconds hand is also polished and has a zodiac logo counter weight. The tip of the seconds hand is once again an arrow that has matching lume to the hour hand and hour markers. These three hands having arrow tips is also a change from the standard Super Sea Wolf watches, which use blocked hands.

Finishing off the dial is the Zodiac logo and branding at 12 o'clock along with "Super Sea Wolf" printed in script. At 6 o'clock is "Diver's", "300 M / 1000 FT", "Chronometer" and "Automatic" along with "Swiss Made". These are all printed in white, except for the depth rating which is printed in orange. One other difference between the older Super Sea Wolf and the new GiantMouse, is that the new watch omits the date window at three. This is a very welcomed change to me, since a date window on a non-calendar watch just means I have to spend more time setting the watch.



Moving on from the dial is the uni-directional dive bezel that takes 120 clicks to complete a full rotation. The bezel has a crystal insert that is light blue with orange markers. The look and feel of the bezel reminds me of the sapphire bezel on my Blancpain Fifty Fathoms 500 Fathoms. The bezel is nicely scalloped and provides amazing grip, meaning it should be able to be operated while wearing dive gloves. Each click of the bezel ratchets right into place with zero back play. The bezel has an orange triangle zero marker that houses the lumed pip that glows a matching bluish-green to the minute hand. 0 to 15 minutes get additional minute markers for each minute. From 15 on, each 5 minute interval is marked with a bar marker, with 30 getting an Arabic numeral. In low light, these markers all glow a bright yellowish-green.

Looking at the profile of the case, you can see that the bezel of the Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse slightly hangs over the case of the watch. This view also shows how the case of the watch has a curve to it and the lugs to better follow the shape of your wrist. The case of the Super Sea Wolf is completely brushed wish some very small polished details on the crown and bezel. The watch really looks like a true dive tool.



The right hand side of the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse features two large crown guards that cover about half of the nicely scalloped screw down crown. The crown also features the Zodiac logo on top of it. With the screw down crown, the Super Sea Wolf boasts 300 meters of water resistance. Un-screwing the crown allows you to manually wind the automatic movement in the resting position. Since there are no calendar functions on the dial of the Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse, there is only one additional crown position. Pulling the crown out to position one allows you to set the time and stops the seconds hand. Pushing the crown back in causes no jump in the minutes hand and it doesn't take much care to get the crown to catch to screw back in.

Flipping the Super Sea Wolf over shows off the solid screwed down caseback. The center of the caseback features a polished engraved Zodiac logo. All the important information about the watch is engraved around the case back as well. Finally the GiantMouse logo and "Giant Mouse Edition" are also engraved on the caseback.

Beating underneath the case back is the Swiss made STP1-11 automatic movement. The STP1-11 is produced by partner brand Swiss Technology Production for Zodiac, essentially making it an in-house movement. The movement beats away at 28,800 vph (4Hz) and has 44 hours of power reserve. On our timegrapher, the STP1-11 showed an average accuracy of +4 seconds per day when averaged out over several positions. This is within chronometer standards, which the watch is certified for, and shows just how accurate the Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse is.



The Zodiac Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse has the most common lug width of 20 mm. That means the watch can accept a limitless amount of aftermarket straps. The collaboration piece comes on a very nice black rubber strap that tapers down from 20 mm at the lugs to 18 mm at the brushed stainless steel pin buckle with the Zodiac logo. The back of the strap is textured and gripped my wrist well, staying centered the entire time I wore it.

The GiantMouse Dive Knife

Well I'm not an expert when it comes to knives, but I'll give it a shot with the dive knife that GiantMouse designed for the set. Most of my knowledge of knives comes from a period of two years about two decades ago when I got obsessed with Shun Ken Onion knives and pretty much collected every piece. At the time that was a very pricey goal, but recently I checked the prices of those knives, and was pleasantly surprised to see that they had exploded in value on the secondhand market. I guess they became somewhat of a cult classic. I guess just like watches, there is a very big collector community for knives.



Anyway, the GiantMouse dive knife is designed to be a high performance dive tool to go hand in hand with the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf on dives. The intent of the design was to mirror the soul of both vintage and modern Super Sea Wolf watches. The watch was tested in the most extreme marine environments and excelled with flying colors.

The blade is forged from N360 satin steel, since this material has extreme corrosion resistance required for diving in saltwater. The blade also has an intentional blunt tip, so that during dives when being hit by waves, you don't accidently cut yourself or puncture something. The blade also has a built in line cutter to quickly be able to cut a line. Finally the blade is also partially serrated for the ability to cut and saw objects like nylon or kelp.

The handle of the GiantMouse dive knife is made out of hard black anodized aluminum, which provides a sturdy, yet lightweight base for the knife. GiantMouse uses a bright orange G10 inlay in the handle to mirror the orange touches found on the Super Sea Wolf. G10 is high-pressure fiberglass laminate created by soaking layers of fiberglass in epoxy resin, that is then compressed and baked under extreme heat. The result is an extremely tough, yet lightweight material that is perfect for use by maritime tools. The handle and blade also feature liquid pass-through holes which allow the ocean to essentially breath through the knife and keep it from getting caught up in the current.



The GiantMouse dive knife has a total length of 8.2 inches with a 3.8 inch blade and 4.4 inch handle. The blade is 3.8 mm thick (0.15 inches). The blade also features the Zodiac logo x GiantMouse logo, signaling the collaboration. The knife has a solid feel in hand and is also lightweight at 125 grams (4.4 ounces). The aluminum has a cool feeling to it and the orange inlay really pops. The inlay also provides a ton of grip to offset the aluminum. The GiantMouse dive knife just seems like a legit piece of dive equipment and there is zero thought in my mind that the watch would fail when you most need it.

On The Wrist

With a lug to lug length of 49.9 mm the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse is a rounding error off from my desired lug to lug length of 50 mm. The watch sits squarely in the center of my wrist with no lug overhang and the appropriate amount of wrist visible on both sides of the case. While I typically do not collect stainless steel watches due to their weight penalty over titanium, ceramic or carbon, the Super Sea Wolf only weighed 112 grams, which is just 12 grams heavier than my preferred 100 gram or less weight for watches of this size. In reality any weight penalty for going with stainless steel isn't really noticed here.

The rugged, yet supple, rubber strap did a great job of keeping the watch in place on my wrist. We've been having an odd period of hot days here in Austin, so I was able to see how the strap dealt with heat and wrist swell, which naturally it did just fine with. Even on the longest of wearing times, the Super Sea Wolf never became uncomfortable and there was no hint of wrist fatigue. While the watch didn't completely disappear on wrist, for the most part it was never a nuisance or got in the way.



The Zodiac Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse also went perfectly with my typical dress of a black t-shirt, shorts and sneakers. The watch is mostly black and silver with the bright light blue and orange highlights, which blended in just fine with what I was wearing. The Super Sea Wolf is a more casual wearing piece, especially since the stainless steel bracelet has been swapped out in favor of the rubber strap. I'm not sure the watch would do great in formal settings though, but it's a dive watch, it's not supposed to.

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 do the best since they have high contrast dials and large dial markers. On the other hand complicated and skeleton watches do the worst since they value design over legibility. Not much to my surprise, the Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse did excellent in this test. Glancing at the watch was all that was needed to quickly decipher the time. The hour markers and hands contrast exceptionally with the deep black dial, making finding them at a glance a snap. Also in low light situations, the Super Sea Wolf excelled at legibility as well. This is due to the generous use of lume on the dial and bezel, especially since three different colors are used.

When I wore the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse out an about running my boring everyday errands, as well as out to dinner and drinks, the watch attracted a fair bit of attention. For the most part I didn't expect people to look at a dive watch on a rubber strap. I think the bright blue bezel and orange markings had a lot to do with the watch getting noticed. I had a handful of people comment and ask about the watch. Unfortunately, I did not have the knife on me when asked about the watch, but I did tell the story of the collaboration. Naturally the thing most commented on the watch, was the blue and orange hues found on the bezel and dial. Everyone thought the watch felt great in hand as well. For the most part, everyone, including friends, I showed the watch to, thought the watch was priced fairly, especially since it came bundled with a GiantMouse dive knife.



Value and Position in the Market

Speaking of price, the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse retails for $2,295. For that price you're getting a true evolution of one of the original dive watches that comes in a set with an extremely high quality dive knife from GiantMouse that matches the look and feel of the watch. Zodiac has also added enough touches to this limited edition model to distinguish it from previous Super Sea Wolf models. The Super Sea Wolf is rugged dive watch with a 120 click dive bezel and a full 300 meters of water resistance as well. Now is the time in the review where we look at watches from other brands that offer similar specifications or features to see how the Super Sea Wolf holds up value wise.

Up first we have the I.N.O.X. from Victorinox which has a 41 mm case made out of Carbon. I picked this watch since there aren't that many watches that come bundled with a knife. The I.N.O.X. comes with a Swiss Army knife, while not in the same league as the GiantMouse dive knife; it's still a watch knife set. The I.N.O.X. is not a dive watch, but it still has 200 meters of water resistance. The watch is powered by an automatic movement, but specs on the movement aren't available. The I.N.O.X. set is much less expensive than the Zodiac x GiantMouse set at $1,375, but this isn't really an apples to apples comparison.

Next up we have the U1 from Sinn which has a 44 mm case made out of submarine steel. The U1 also has a somewhat vintage dive watch feel with the crown positioned at 4. The U1 offers an extremely impressive, be it not usable, 1,000 meters of water resistance. The Sinn is powered by an off the self Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement with only 38 hours of power reserve. The Sinn U1 also comes with nothing extra, like a dive knife, and cost much more than the Super Sea Wolf Giant Mouse at $3,260 on a rubber strap.



Moving on is the SUB 300 from DOXA that has a 42.5 x 45 mm case made out of stainless steel. The SUB 300 is also one of the original dive watches and has kept its vintage cushion case look. The SUB 300 has the same 300 meters of water resistance as the Super Sea Wolf. The SUB 300 is powered by a similar Sellita movement to the U1, which has less power reserve than the Zodiac at 38 hours. The SUB 300 is also a bit more expensive than the Super Sea Wolf at $2,850, which does not include any extra accessories.

Finally we have the Fifty Fathoms Automatique from Blancpain which has a 42.3 mm case made out of stainless steel. The Fifty Fathoms as the first production dive watch to hit the market in 1953, which was the year Zodiac debuted the Sea Wolf a bit later. The Fifty Fathoms is powered by an in-house automatic movement with a full 120 hours of power reserve. The Fifty Fathoms has the same 300 meters of water resistance found on the Super Sea Wolf. Time has seen the Fifty Fathoms evolve into more of a luxury timepiece, while the Zodiac has kept its tool watch status. As such, the Fifty Fathoms cost much more than the Super Sea Wolf at $19,000.



Looking at the four watches we compared the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse set to, you can see just how great of a value the collaboration is. Not only are you getting an extremely capable watch in the Super Sea Wolf that also has a very strong legacy in the history of dive watches, but you're also getting a super nice dive knife from GiantMouse as well. That this set cost less than the watches alone that we have compared is reason enough to call it a good value, especially when it mostly matches if not beats the others in terms of specifications. The Victorinox is the outlier here, but once again it's not a dive watch and you can't really compare a mass produced Swiss Army knife to the craftsmanship put into the GiantMouse dive knife.

Closing Thoughts

So in the end, is the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse for me? In all honesty, it really is. The Super Sea Wolf is right in line with watches I tend to collect size wise. I've also come back around over the last two decades to be fine accepting that dive watches are my favorite type of watch, and I collect them mostly now. The legacy of the Sea Wolf and Zodiac's role in the development of the dive watch is something I love having a connection to as well. Finally the blue and orange hues used on the dial and bezel really look great when combined with the black dial.

Zodiac also made small but meaningful changes to the GiantMouse edition of the Super Sea Wolf. These include a change to the hour markers and hands, which I actually prefer to the base Super Sea Wolf pieces. The removal of the date is also something I strongly applaud in the GiantMouse edition. Finally going from a stainless steel bracelet to a rubber strap is huge for me, since I really don't like bracelets at all… on any watch. If I could change one thing on the watch, it would be to have the case made out of titanium. I know preferring titanium over stainless steel is not something most collectors would agree with, but that's my personal bias.



The added bonus of the GiantMouse dive knife really seals the deal for me. I've never really gone down the rabbit hole of EDC and knives, but I really do appreciate them. Just like watches, knives can solely be appreciated for the engineering and craftsmanship that goes into designing and producing a quality knife. GiantMouse will be presenting at WindUp in Dallas next month, which we are going to attend. While there I really want to take a look at all the brand has to offer and get my knife knowledge a bit past that of my 20 year old kitchen knives.

Would I then recommend the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse to somebody looking for a capable yet somewhat playful dive watch? Since I liked the watch and knife as much as I did, I would have zero hesitation recommending the collaboration to that collector. With only 300 sets being made, I have a strong feeling the collaboration will sell out fast though. Otherwise the set offers great value for money and might feature my favorite modern Zodiac behind the white ceramic Super Sea Wolf with orange highlights.

During our time with the Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse, my wife, with a much smaller wrist than me, wore the watch extensively as well. Even with her smaller size, she loved how the watch wore and asked to wear it out explicitly a few times. This shows that the Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse can appeal to a large variety of collectors, even those with small or large wrists and both genders. Combining this with how great of a pure dive watch it is, the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse is a very easy watch for me to recommend to pretty much anyone looking for an all out dive watch. Like I've said before, the addition of the GiantMouse dive knife to the package is a huge bonus. Even more so when you see how both brands worked in tandem to create a dive watch and knife that complement each other so well.



I'd really like to thank both Zodiac and GiantMouse for sending us their Super Sea Wolf collaboration to review. In terms of Zodiac, I was already a huge fan of the brand and once again the Super Sea Wolf GiantMouse proved to me how top tier their watches are. The changes made to this GiantMouse edition are noteworthy enough to make it my second favorite piece currently in their collection. As it comes to GiantMouse, I have spent the last week really going over their products and am very impressed. The dive knife in the set is awesome and looking to be a permanent fixture on my desk. I'm also grateful that it doesn't have a sharp tip, since I for sure would cut myself playing around with it. Next month when we're in Dallas for WindUp, I really want to stop by the GiantMouse booth and check out more of their knives in person.

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

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: ZO3652

Retail Price: $2,295

Case Size: 41.8 mm

Lug to Lug: 49.9 mm

Thickness: 14.5 mm

Weight: 112 grams

Case Material: Stainless Steel

Bezel: Uni-Directional with 120 Clicks and a Crystal Inlay

Strap: Black Rubber Strap with Stainless Steel Pin Buckle

Movement: Swiss Made STP1-11 Automatic Movement

Functions: Hours, Minutes and Seconds

Power Reserve: 44 Hours

Water Resistance: 300 Meters