When asked who created the first modern dive watches, usually one or two watch brands come to mind. Brands we’re all very familiar with, whose watches have become, in more sense than one, standards for what a dive watch is. Though back in the ‘50s, when they first created these iconic watches, they sought to make functional tool watches for diving professionals and enthusiasts, these days their watches are status symbols first. While still highly capable, with price tags approaching or north of $10k, one could argue the spirit of the originals has been lost. Luckily, Zodiac is an outlier, having created one of the very first dive watches in 1953 with the Sea Wolf, and continuing to this day to keep that legacy alive with functional, affordable watches. 

Today, we’re bringing the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf 53 Skin models into the Windup Watch Shop. The closest watches, visually, to the original, these 39mm, 200m divers have vintage charm, but fully-modern specs. All feature steel bezels with milled out and sometimes paint filled numbers, and dials with the distinctive triangular Sea Wolf markers. Powered by Swiss-made STP 1-11 automatic movements, which are quite nicely decorated, they are also reliable, accurate timekeepers. Starting at $1,095, the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf 53 Skin divers are a great way to get genuine vintage-diver provenance in a modern sports watch.

To kick off this collection, we’re adding four varieties of the Skin diver: Black Dial with Jubilee-style Bracelet, Black Dial on Black Leather Mil-Strap, Black and Gold Dial on Brown Leather, and Cream Dial on Oyster-style bracelet.