Ariste Calame founded Zodiac in 1882 in Le Locle, the Neuchatel valley town that also produced Tissot, Ulysse Nardin, and the original Zenith manufacture. Through the early 20th century Zodiac produced standard pocket watches and wristwatches with in-house calibres, earning a reputation in the 1930s and 1940s as a solid mid-market Swiss brand with particular strength in railroad-grade timekeeping.
In 1953 Zodiac launched the Sea Wolf, one of the world's first purpose-built dive watches - arriving alongside the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms (1953) and slightly before the Rolex Submariner (1954). The Sea Wolf combined a rotating bezel, luminous dial, and water resistance to 200m in a 35mm case. It was the brand's single most important reference and remains the commercial anchor of the modern Zodiac line. In 1968 Zodiac introduced the Astrographic, an unusual design with hour and minute indications carried on floating discs rather than hands, creating a space-age appearance that has become a cult object among 1960s design enthusiasts.
Zodiac struggled through the quartz crisis, was sold and re-sold several times, and was acquired by Fossil Group in 2001. Under Fossil the brand re-oriented around its mid-century archive - Sea Wolf, Super Sea Wolf, Astrographic, and Olympos reissues produced in small Swiss-made series, typically using STP or ETA movements, and sold at prices substantially below most Swiss dive watches. The Super Sea Wolf programme has become Zodiac's primary vehicle for the retro-dive-watch revival of the 2010s and 2020s.
