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The Zodiac Glorious Automatic is, in our opinion, one of the genuinely underappreciated dress pieces of the mid-1960s Le Locle catalog. Zodiac built its reputation in the post-war decades on the strength of its tool watches, and the Sea Wolf gets most of the modern attention, but the brand’s dress catalog of the same period is where the quieter, more considered work lives. A clean Glorious automatic with an anthracite sunburst dial, applied steel batons, and that signed compass-rose rotor underneath is exactly the kind of mid-century Swiss watch that rewards a collector willing to look past the usual references.
Zodiac was founded in Le Locle in 1882 by Ariste Calame, which puts the brand among the older continuously-operating Swiss houses still recognizable by name today. By the 1950s Zodiac was running its own factory, sourcing finished and semi-finished movements from specialists like Felsa and A. Schild, and regulating and casing them under the Zodiac signature with a level of consistency that earned the brand a serious enthusiast following throughout the post-war boom. The Glorious line sat in the dress-watch segment of that catalog, positioned as a clean, time-only proposition for buyers who wanted a Swiss automatic without the visual weight of a dive case or a chronograph register. The inner caseback on this example confirms its Le Locle production with the verbatim stamping “Zodiac Ltd / Le Locle Swiss” over “ACIER INOXYDABLE” over the reference “702 917” arranged in the conventional period layout.
Powering the watch is the Zodiac-signed Cal. 70-72, a 17-jewel automatic from the heart of the brand’s independent era. The winding mass itself is the visual centerpiece of the movement, engraved verbatim “70-72 / Zodiac Ltd / ADJUSTED SWISS / SEVENTEEN 17 JEWELS” in gold lettering across its frosted surface, with the Zodiac compass-rose emblem applied at the upper portion. Zodiac was unusual for a brand of its scale in how seriously it took the visual treatment of its calibers, signing rotors at a moment when most of its competition was content to leave a winding mass blank or carry only a serial. The 70-72 is the kind of caliber that does not show up on the trophy lists, but it runs smoothly, services cleanly, and represents Zodiac’s mid-1960s production at full confidence.
The case is a 34mm round in polished stainless steel, with a 41mm lug-to-lug and an 18mm lug width that proportions the watch as a true mid-century dress piece. The lugs themselves are the architectural highlight: faceted on the top edge with a crisp chamfer running the length of each lug, creating a defined line that catches light against the more rounded mid-case. The crown is signed with the small compass-rose Zodiac emblem and sits unobtrusively at three o’clock. The outer caseback is engraved with the Zodiac Libra-scales symbol at top center and a small compass-rose mark above the “Zodiac” wordmark, framed by the legends “WATER- & SHOCKRESISTANT” curving along the left and “AUTOMATIC – ANTIMAGNETIC – SWISS” curving along the right. The surface carries honest case-opener marks and light scratching consistent with sixty years of careful wearing, and the inner caseback retains its period concentric circular finishing.
The dial is what makes this Glorious worth slowing down for. The surface is finished in an anthracite sunburst that pulls deeper toward the rim and brightens in the central radial pattern, shifting through cool steel-grey to almost black depending on the angle of light. The applied steel batons are faceted on their top surface and carry a luminous channel down the center of each, with the original lume aged uniformly to a warm cream tone that pairs cleanly with the cool grey of the dial. At twelve o’clock, a small applied compass-rose Zodiac mark anchors the layout, with the “Zodiac” italic script and “Glorious” cursive sub-line printed directly underneath. The italic “Automatic” sits at the lower right of the dial, and “SWISS MADE” is printed cleanly at the outer edge at six o’clock. The dauphine hour and minute hands carry matching luminous channels with the same cream patina, balanced by a slim polished sweep seconds hand. There is no date and no sub-seconds register: the dial is uninterrupted across its full surface, which is exactly the point.
We are presenting this Zodiac Glorious Automatic on an olive leather strap with cream contrast stitching, finished with a polished steel buckle. The olive tone picks up the warmer notes in the anthracite sunburst and softens the cool grey of the dial against a wearer’s wrist, while the 18mm lug width keeps the strap proportioned correctly to the slim case. The grained texture and broken-in feel of the leather suit the watch’s mid-century personality without competing with the dial’s quiet presence.
Serviced in-house at OTTUHR and backed by our 2-year mechanical warranty, this Glorious is a wonderfully restrained piece of mid-1960s Le Locle work. For the collector who values understatement over visual noise and prefers a dial that earns attention through finish rather than through complication, this is, to us, exactly the kind of Zodiac that the brand’s dress-watch catalog deserves to be remembered for.
