Mind your fingers folks, here comes the Buzzsaw!
(Click pictures to enlarge)
To many watch enthusiasts, the Sea Wolf is regarded as Zodiac’s quintessential diver’s watch. The first model was released in 1953 and was one of the first dive watches made specifically for sale to the general public, rather than being produced solely for commercial use.
I won’t go into detail about the original Sea Wolf, I’ll save that for another post, but fast forward a few years to the 1960’s and the Super Sea Wolf was released, increasing the depth rating significantly from 100 to 750 metres.
Fast forward another 40 years and the subject of this post homes into view, the Super Sea Wolf 1000m, nicknamed ‘The Buzzsaw’, for well, pretty obvious reasons.
The Buzzsaw was produced at a tumultuous time for Zodiac, whose ownership changed three times in just four years. Owned from 1990 onwards by Willy Gad Monnier, of TAG Heuer fame, Montres Zodiac SA went bankrupt in November 1997.
In September 1998, Genender International Inc. stepped in and purchased the remaining inventory, assets, trademarks and registrations, discontinued the majority of the existing models and restarted production, before selling the company on again in October 2001 to Fossil Inc. who still own and produce watches under the Zodiac name today.
During their short period at the helm, Genender also produced a second model in the Super Sea Wolf range, a near identical copy of the vintage 750m diver, but with a slightly different bezel design and additional markings on the dial.
If you’re wondering exactly what the additional dial markings are for, it’s a “quadrant compression system” used in conjunction with the bezel and a dive table available with the watch, to calculate the decompression time required after diving to a specified depth – more information here.
Here’s an advertisement from the period showing the two models together.
In terms of dimensions, the Buzzsaw case is 43mm wide, 45mm lug to lug, 15mm high, with a lug width of 20mm. Total production numbers are not known, but are thought to be somewhere between 200 and 350, making it quite a rare piece.
It’s worth taking a minute to appreciate said Buzzsaw as it’s pretty distinctive. When viewed from the side you can see that the raised sections of the bezel are overlaid, like scales, and all the edges are nicely rounded so it doesn’t snag on anything when worn.
If you read around on the net, it isn’t long before you come across a discussion about whether the Buzzsaw was ever issued to Navy Seal divers. Speculation is rife, though Zodiac themselves did release this advert claiming just that during the marketing campaign, which is proof enough for some, but not others.
Interestingly, around a decade after the initial release, a small number of NOS (new old stock) Buzzsaws were offered for sale by Time Machine Watches (the advert is still viewable here), which also showed that the ‘full set’ originally included a branded leather pouch containing a spring bar tool, an additional rubber strap with diver’s extension, and printed dive table charts. All interesting stuff (well, it is to a watch-nerd like me anyway!)
Whilst researching this post I also spotted this Japanese catalogue showing a second version of the watch with red dial markers and minute hand, along with a different model number.
It could just be the picture, but the red version looks to be slightly smaller and looking at the date, they are different fonts, suggesting a different calibre inside perhaps? It also appears that the case and accessory kit could be purchased separately in Japan, for ¥40,000.
If anyone has any more information about this curious red variant, I’d certainly be interested to hear about it.
There’s not much more to say about the ol’ Buzzsaw. This post is more of a ‘show and tell’ as the watch arrived in full working order and needed no more than a routine service for the ETA cal. 2824-2 inside, though I hope it proved interesting, and perhaps it’s another diver to add to that pesky, ever-extending wish list. 🙂
Rich.
** Many thanks to Phil Johnson for letting me feature his watch on the blog. **
