Hollywood entertainment has an outsized relationship with wristwatch demand. Timepieces worn in movies can gain strong demand that would have never existed save for famous placements and plots. Popular characters can make ho-hum real-world watches so much more interesting, and fictionalized watches — even when kitsch or satire — earn cult popularity and simmering hopes that those items become real. Sometimes they do, and sometimes the people who make new watches simply like to create something inspired by a fun scene in a memorable movie. Such was the case with this particular Rowing Blazers’ timepiece collaboration, once again with Zodiac.

For this limited-edition watch, Rowing Blazers’ founder Jack Carlson decided to try his hand at making a movie watch real. The subject of his focus was 1983’s Trading Places. In the movie, a disenfranchised Dan Aykroyd attempts to pawn a fictitious Swiss luxury watch known as a “Rochefoucauld.” The relevant film scene includes the merits of the watch being discussed with particular emphasis placed on its world time function including the ability to simultaneously know the time in Monte Carlo, Beverly Hills, London, Paris, Rome, and Gstaad. This Zodiac x Rowing Blazers collaboration Super Sea Wolf World Time GMT watch is an artistic attempt to make a timepiece that functions as the Rouchefoucauld mentioned in the Trading Places script. I encourage you to read more of the story and its details in our Zodiac x Rowing Blazers Super Sea Wolf GMT World Time reference ZO9414 watch debut article.

Going hands-on with the Zodiac x Rowing Blazers GMT watch, you realize that you don’t need to know anything about the film to appreciate this timepiece. There are no serious mentions of the Trading Places Easter egg joke aside from some of the text on the city ring dial that includes the city names from the movie. Otherwise, you have an interesting and still-fun GMT watch with Rowing Blazers character, along with another one of its impressively designed fabric straps in addition to the steel metal bracelet that comes with the watch.

Zodiac has had GMT versions of its Super Sea Wolf diver’s watch since at least 2019, but until now, none of them has featured an in-house STP Swiss Made GMT movement. Previous Super Sea Wolf GMT watches made heavy use of Soprod GMT automatic movements (which aren’t bad, of course). With the Zodiac x Rowing Blazers Super Sea Wolf GMT World Time reference ZO9414 watch, Zodiac finally introduces an in-house movement that is manufactured by the group’s STP movement maker in Switzerland. The automatic movement inside the Super Sea Wolf GMT, starting with this model, is the caliber STP7-20, which operates at 4Hz with 42 hours of power reserve. Notably, the regulation system makes use of a silicon hairspring for added accuracy and reliability over time. The self-winding movement features the time, 24-hour GMT hand, and the date. The Super Sea Wolf Pineapple Dream watch that I collaborated with Zodiac on saw the debut of a silicon hairspring in its three-hand watches, and now we see the same treatment for the GMT watches in this Rowing Blazers collaboration. In all likelihood, more Zodiac watches will be equipped with silicon hairsprings moving forward.

The Super Sea Wolf GMT watch itself is 40mm wide in steel, 13.6mm thick, and water-resistant to 200 meters with an AR-coated domed sapphire crystal over the dial. The watch is not thin, but it is classy and sporty and showcases the angular hand and hour marker design that has showcased Super Sea Wolf GMT watches until now. For this collaborative design, Rowing Blazers chose a high-contrast black dial with a reverse-tone 24-hour scale for the GMT hand. The red GMT hand and blue rotating city indicator (along with the white) give a slight American Flag vibe, which makes sense in a product loosely inspired by a movie that took place in the city of Philadelphia.

I’m a big fan of the straps that Rowing Blazers ensures includes with the various collaboration watches it has released so far with multiple brands. Mostly inspired by tailoring and sewing patterns, the straps are all a bit different but equally fashionable. For the Super Sea Wolf GMT World Time watch with Zodiac, Rowing Blazers opted for a black nylon and Velcro strap with a white zigzag pattern on it. I must admit that I immediately put this 20mm strap on a different black and white watch that it looks perfect on. The steel bracelet that comes on the case isn’t bad, either. It tapers, and it includes two spring-loaded comfort-adjust ends on the butterfly-style deployant clasp. Note that the bracelet removes easily from the case thanks to being fitted with tool-less spring bars.

While not particularly necessary for appreciating or even liking this watch, the product story as related to the Trading Places movie is a fun part of this GMT World Time timepiece’s plot, though the watch is hardly a precise analog to the prop in the comedy. It is, however, enough for this item’s appeal that Rowing Blazer’s collaboration watches are enjoying a hot minute right now, and that even though it’s a bit more expensive than previous Zodiac Super Seal Wolf GMT timepieces, this watch is a decent value. The dial of the Super Sea Wolf GMT World Time is functional and timeless in a way that a lot of people like their vintage-style modern sports watches to be. As a limited edition of 282 pieces, the reference ZO9414 Zodiac x Rowing Blazers Super Sea Wolf GMT World Time watch has a retail price of $2,195 USD. Learn more at the Zodiac website or visit the Rowing Blazers website.