To be honest, we were rather skeptical at first when it came to the green lume used for the hands and large triangle markers. Fortunately, we think that the end result looks much better than we expected and we’re pleased there was no attempt to create a faux patina. From a functional point of view, the hour and minute hands should certainly be more distinctive (as you will notice in the night shot), the seconds hand should be equipped with lume as well, and the bezel could be upgraded to have more contrast – but all those changes would have meant a huge step away from the original.
And even though the Sea Wolf is water resistant to 200 meters, equipped with a screw-in crown, and would probably nicely fit under a wetsuit with only 13 mm in thickness, we think its strength lies more in being an ideal everyday watch. We feel the clasp used on the bracelet was maybe a bit too close to the past: it is a rather basic foldover clasp. And even though it is equipped with a short, spring-loaded extension and even though there is absolutely nothing to criticize about how it performed, we actually would have preferred a standard folding clasp instead.
The caseback is equipped with a see-through crystal, which is clearly a step away from the original. Nevertheless, given the target audience and the modern positioning of Zodiac, there will probably be quite a lot of first-time mechanical buyers opting for the Sea Wolf, and those buyers will appreciate the chance to see the mechanical movement (an STP1-11) at work. Basically, the movement used can be regarded as an alternative to the 2824, and we strongly recommend you read Norma Buchanan’s in-depth article about Fossil’s in-house capabilities and recent acquisitions for more details about it.