A Famous $2,000 Dive Watch Is Now Selling for $125, and Reddit Is Going Nuts

The Zodiac Sea Wolf is one of the most legendary names in dive watches.

With the first version of the watch allegedly debuting in 1953 — the same year as the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms and Rolex Submariner — the model ranks as one of the very first modern dive watches.

In more recent times, Zodiac has undergone a resurgence by reproducing, improving and expanding upon many of its colorful mid-century Sea Wolf designs with the modern Super Sea Wolf line that features ceramic bezels and cases, GMT complications, COSC-certified movements and price tags ranging from $1,600 to $2,300.

Photo by Johnny Brayson for Gear Patrol

Over the past month, Reddit’s r/Watches subreddit has been awash with tales of lucky shoppers coming across Zodiac dive watches for the impossibly low price of $125 at Ross Dress for Less, a nationwide chain of discount department stores comparable to TJ Maxx and Marshalls.

So what’s going on here? Is this truly a Christmas miracle where a famous, Swiss-made, automatic dive watch is selling for more than 90 percent off retail, or has r/Watches been overrun by a disparate group of pranksters?

Like a Ross

To quote Han Solo in The Force Awakens: It’s true. All of it.

Some Ross locations are indeed selling Super Sea Wolf models for $125. How do I know? Because my colleague, Gear Patrol Motoring Editor Gray Van Dyke, picked one up over the weekend. He managed to get a Super Sea Wolf Ceramic Compression Diver — a ceramic-cased diver that retails for $1,795 and was a GP100 pick in 2023 — for the aforementioned $125.

Photo by Gray Van Dyke for Gear Patrol

Gray lives in San Diego, and he scored his watch at the Ross located at 3237 Sports Arena Blvd, where it was the only model available. This was his second try at the store after striking out the first time, and he also checked four other area Ross stores at La Jolla, Kearney Mesa, Clairemont and Downtown, coming up empty at all of them.

Reddit finds have shown more diversity. A Redditor in New York found the eBay limited edition, which launched last year at $1,695. A guy in Florida scored one of the 500 “Pineapple Dream” limited editions, which also retails for $1,695. Someone in Arizona landed both an $1,800 World Time and the full-lume, COSC-certified, ceramic-bezeled Pro-Diver, which sits at the top of the Super Sea Wolf range at $2,300. All of these models, plus Gray’s orange ceramic number, have popped up in other states, as well, and all for just $125.

So the deals are indeed real, but there’s still one question that remains: Why is Ross virtually giving away Zodiac watches?

Photo by Gray Van Dyke for Gear Patrol

There are two prevailing theories. One suggests that, because Fossil owns Zodiac, the watches’ SKUs are erroneously registering as Fossil models, resulting in a price that was meant for some of the parent company’s budget offerings.

The other theory, and the one I happen to find more likely, has to do with the state of Fossil as a company. On October 24, 2025, Fossil filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection with a proposed restructuring plan. Three weeks later, on November 10, we got our first Reddit post of someone finding a Zodiac diver for $125 at Ross.

Given the timeline, it seems likely that Fossil is liquidating Zodiac stock as part of its bankruptcy plan, and Ross bought a bunch of it. Zodiac’s Instagram account has been radio silent since October, and several watches are out of stock on its website (which is currently running a 30 percent off sale). It’s looking and acting like a dead brand walking.

I don’t know if this is the end of Zodiac as we know it or not, but I do know that if you want a Super Sea Wolf, there has literally never been a better time to buy one (at least at Ross).

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