Zodiac Panda Dial Chronograph

For many wristwatch collectors, the name that is printed on the dial is where they begin assessing the value of a watch.  But at analog/shift, we believe that it is what is under the hood that counts.  Sure, the value of a brand name can be important, but the buck shouldn't stop there. 

Throughout the 60's and 70's, Heuer, the brand chosen by famous racers like Jo Siffert and Steve McQueen, was producing watches for a number of other brands under contract.  This practice gave rise to a whole subset of Heuer-built timepieces - assembled from the same parts bins as their Carreras and Autavias - that were sold under a variety of other brand names. These watches have come to be lovingly referred to as "Poor Man's" Heuers (Thanks, Jeff!) because they were generally much less expensive than their Heuer-signed counterparts.  

In addition to providing watches for big retailers like Zales and Sears Roebuck, Heuer built watches for other brands as well, including Hamilton and Zodiac.

What's incredible about these "Poor Man's Heuers" is that they utilized some of the very same components that Heuer was using on their own timepieces.  While you won't find many with Calibre 11s or 12s, they almost always featured Valjoux manual-wind movements of the 773X series and had very similar dials, hands, crowns and pushers.  This made them every bit as mechanically robust as they were gorgeous.

This particular piece was signed by Zodiac, and features a Valjoux 7730 chronograph movement with a gorgeous 2-register "Reverse Panda" dial.  Nearly indistinguishable from it's Carrera cousins, this wonderful, all-original Zodiac is a great way to get into quality vintage chronographs without spending an arm and a leg.