Zodiac Introduces the Sea-Chron, a Vintage Inspired Chronograph with Roots in the 1960s

Zodiac continues to plumb the depths of their archives with their latest release, the Sea-Chron chronograph. Originating in the 1960s, the Sea-Chron was a natural extension of the Sea Wolf, a platform that Zodiac has returned to in recent years to great success. This sporty diver’s chronograph picks up on a lot of the aesthetic cues of the classic Sea Wolf, but has some key technical upgrades that put it squarely in modern watch territory. It also fills a fairly wide hole in the Zodiac catalog – it’s hard to believe, but up until this week, they didn’t have a chronograph in their collection. 

Zodiac envisions the Sea-Chron as a true multipurpose sports watch. Like their dive watches, the Sea-Chron has a full 200 meters of water resistance, and the case has been outfitted with a timing bezel with a twenty minute interval. Inside the timing bezel and at the dial’s perimeter, you’ll find a tachymeter that can be used completely independently of the Sea-Chron’s dive timing features. The handset is the familiar Zodiac fence post design, and squared off apertures with lume underneath for the hours, except at 3, 6 and 9, where you’ll find the sub registers for minute and hour totalizations, and a running seconds indicator. 

There are two variants of the Sea-Chron available at launch. One in a clean black and white colorway that would appear to prize legibility above all else. This version has a black base dial and white subdials, and, crucially, a white tachymeter scale with black text, which is a very legible combination. The other variant has a dark blue base dial with black subdials. In both cases, the dials have a subtle sunburst pattern and radial finishing on the sub registers for contrast.

The Sea-Chron’s stainless steel case measures 42mm across and 16.5mm tall, and the lug to lug span is 50.5mm. That’s a big watch, but not completely out of the ordinary considering the water resistance and the use of the Sellita 510 b automatic movement, which is known to be reliable, but is not exactly slender. The power reserve is a healthy 62 hours, and the Sea-Chron case is mounted to a very nice five-link, Jubilee style bracelet. 

As mentioned above, Zodiac has experienced a great deal of success with their Sea Wolf collection recently, thanks in large part to the brand’s willingness to experiment with color. The first two Sea-Chrons out of the gate are nice looking to be sure, but fairly conservative in terms of their colorways, so it will fun to see how Zodiac might attempt to mirror some of the success they saw with the Sea Wolf in their chrono by eventually offering a more offbeat collection of dial variants. For now though, it’s nice to see a new complication in the Zodiac collection, and we look forward to getting some hands-on time with the Sea-Chron soon. 

The retail price for the Zodiac Sea-Chron is $2,495. More information here.