The Zodiac Astrographic is back from outer space

Zodiac has been on a tear. As evidenced by how quickly their Basel release (which we wrote about here) sold out, they know how to take their “old” designs and refresh them for modern consumers. If a pure dive watch isn’t your thing, how about something from the Space Age era? The Zodiac Astrographic made its debut back in 1969, and it’s back again now, 50 years later.

This year, we seem to have been having a lot of watches that chart 1969 in their lineage. That’s not to belittle the mark, as it’s a big one. It’s just that something else happened that year too – the Apollo 11 mission and the moon landing. You know, that little thing. So, it’s not surprising that the watches of that era have that sort of Jetson-esque retro futurism to them. For watches, that mean different styles and ways of telling time. For the Zodiac Astrographic, it was the latter.

If you think that the whole concept of watch hands is overdone, the designers of the original Zodiac Astrographic would agree with you. You might think that it has hands, but those are really just markers painted on to the actual time-telling device. In this case, it’s a set of (clear) rotating discs so that it looks like the hands are floating (IN SPACE!) or held in place by magnetism or something. Even knowing the trick of the discs, it’s still an interesting concept.

Not only that, the Zodiac Astrographic puts another space-race nod into the watch design (well, aside from the case shape) in the form of the seconds indicator (remember, we’re not dealing with hands). For that, you’ve got a red dot circling around the dial, which of course is to give a nod to Mars. So hey, maybe this really is a watch looking to the future of a mission out there.

For the here and now, you’ve got two choices for your own Zodiac Astrographic. You can get it in lovely stainless steel treatment with a blue and cream dial (sort of like what we saw here) or the all-business-corporate-boardroom gold tone finish. Regardless of the color palette, only 182 pieces of each will be made at the asking price of $1,295. If that last GMT is any indicator, and the moon landing craze continues, it’s likely this is another watch that’ll move fast. Which means you’ll want to as well. zodiacwatches.com

Watch Overview

Brand & Model: Zodiac Astrographic

Price: $1,295
Who we think it might be for: You want to relive the space race era on your wrist
Would I buy one for myself based on what I’ve seen? Ultimately, no – this particular case shape isn’t my cup of tea