The ‘Most Exciting Watch You Can Wear’ Gets a 50th-Anniversary Redo

Originally published by Cole Pennigton on Hodinkee.

There's something wonderfully novel about the "mystery dial" of the Zodiac Astrographic. From a design perspective, it sticks out even from the crop of wild designs that proliferated in the '60s and '70s. And that's saying something when you consider the barrel cases, UFO cases, gradient dials, and far out color schemes that were popular back then. This era of watch design saw some very unique designs. It also takes folks a considerable amount of time to understand how it works, especially if they're not watch enthusiasts. The recently released re-edition features slight updates from the original model launched in '69, but it certainly hasn't lost any of its oddball charm. In fact, the changes that have occurred over the past 50 years in science, technology, and space travel have perhaps made the watch even more interesting. The design of the Astrographic is very much a product of its time, when retro-futurism was in full effect, and Zodiac has found an interesting angle to build a relevant story around the new edition of the Astrographic in 2019 that's completely distinct from the '69 model. The watch is limited to 182 pieces in both a gold plated and stainless steel case execution.

Both the original and modern re-edition are characterized by a series of three translucent discs stacked on top of each other, each with a single hand applied on them. The hour hand sits closest to the dial, then above it the minute hand, and then lastly on top sits the second "hand," but instead of a traditional seconds hand it's a floating dot. For comparison, we've photographed a vintage model that was produced by Zodiac for the Greater Greensboro Open. Today the Greater Greensboro Open is called the Wyndham Championship on the PGA tour. The seconds hand is actually a golf ball, and the dial is, you guessed it, green like a golf course, along with the tournament logo at 9 o'clock. There's an inscription on the back "JWT 1976." It's a sort of goofy watch that's just plain fun to wear.