ZODIAC ASTRODIGIT JUMP HOUR MYSTERY DIAL 1973
One of two direct-read Astrographics - the Astrodigit. It's not exactly a jump hour but it's mega rare! It's practically identical with the Astrographic... the classic disc concept was expanded with numbers that rotate in the same manner as the "hand" markers. This allows reading the time in both ways but the small inconveniance is the necessity to view the dial in a straight line... otherwise the print on the crystal makes it difficult to read the time at even a small angle.
Astrodigit discs present far more detail than the classic analog version thus any attempt to reproduce damaged discs will require scanning and a lot of photoshopping. Printing the images on foil also allows creavity so the outcome might have any color desired... check below version with orange and yellow seconds. This is really a quicker workaround because ordinary laser printers do not print white ;) Otherwise in order to achieve the same original result you would have to manually paint the background of the black digits with white paint using a needle.
Due to the extreme rarity of Astrodigits there are many reproductions to be found. If you come across NOS discs and crystals you can easily make an Astrodigit from any classic Astrographic. In my opinion an original Astrodigit should have a dial with the names printed vertically as shown on the silver dial. Once the digit discs are mounted the print on such a dial will remain hidden. Otherwise the Zodiac name printed on the left side will be partially visible through the discs and that will definitely not look professional. It just wouldn't make sense to use such dials for Astrodigits (with Zodiac on the left) because Zodiac is already printed on the crystal.
Keywords: zodiac astrodigit, zodiac sst, mystery dial
Market value: 200-600$ (condition, box)