Zodiac

Template:Hersteller-Menue2 Zodiac is a historic Swiss watch brand, currently owned by Fossil Group.

History

Watchmaker Ariste Calame began making watches in 1882, coining the Zodiac brand in 1908. The Zodiac Autographic of 1932 featured the first power reserve indicator. Zodiac created their own 8-day movement in 1937 and launched an automatic watch with one of the earliest power reserve indicators in 1949.

In 1953 the Zodiac Sea Wolf was launched, a model that would establish the company's reputation for dive watches.

Although there are claims of a "quartz" Zodiac watch as early as 1932, it was the 1968 launch of the Zodiac Dynotron that really mattered. This was one of the first Swiss electronic watches, and Zodiac also participated in the launch of the Beta 21 quartz movement]] in 1970. By the 1970s, Zodiac was known as a maker of upscale and luxury watches.

Zodiac Killer

The watch logo with the cross-circle symbol was used by a serial killer who became famous in Northern California in the 1960s/1970s and who was therefore called Zodiac Killer. The Zodiac Sea Wolf model is shown in the film Zodiac, directed by David Fincher, where one of the suspects wears this watch.

Zodiac, Zenith, Dixi

The Zodiac brand faltered through the quartz crisis and was purchased by Paul Buhré (part of Dixi, owner of Zenith), in 1979. Zodiac watches continued, now sold by Montres Zodiac SA (also called Zodiac Precision Watches) of Le Locle. These were produced by Zenith, with quartz models using movements from ETA. Zodiac officially became part of Zenith in 1982. The brand was not successful and disappeared after 1985.

On October 29, 1988, Zodiac (along with H. Moser & Cie., Jean Perret, Luxor, Paul Buhré, Robert Cart, and Terrasse) was dissolved. These brands were officially abandoned in 1989.

The Zodiac brand was re-launched in 1990 at the Basel Fair. Watches were produced by Zenith, but Zodiac maintained its own design, marketing, and distribution. This incarnation went bankrupt in 1997.

Zodiac and Fossil

The brand was purchased by the American Genender company in 1998, which re-introduced the iconic models, the Sea Wolf and Astrographic.

Fossil Group stepped in to purchase this company in October, 2001. The next month, Fossil also purchased Montres Antima SA, Meliga Habillement Horloger SA, and Synergies Horlogeres SA to establish a Swiss watchmaking operation.