chat

The Universal Century timeline is why Gundam became famous, and is the most "Gundam" Gundam.

Production order of the major entries isn't a bad way to watch them:
0079 -> Z -> ZZ -> CCA -> 0080 -> 0083 -> V -> 08MS -> ∀ -> UC -> Origin -> NT

• The original 1979 series is great, but it really drags for a dozen or so episodes in the middle. I haven't seen the movies, but the movies are what actually made Gundam famous in Japan.
• Zeta is the direct sequel, is also great, and has the best OP of any animated series. Nobody recommends the movies instead of the series.
• Double Zeta starts with the aftermath of Zeta before just ignoring it and pulling a massive tone shift. It gets really bad for a bit, but I thought the episodes towards the end were better than anything in Zeta.
• Char's Counterattack is essentially the real sequel to Zeta, although it's slightly polarizing.
• 0080, 0083, and 08MS are spin-offs set during or just after the original. These are all pretty short, and you can watch them whenever. These are all good, but with minor problems (weird characterization in 0083, director changes and tonal inconsistencies in 08MS, etc.)
• Victory Gundam is incredibly grim and weird, but worth it just to see how depressing a supposed kid's show can get. Starting here would be insanity, but it's not actually directly connected to anything else so I guess you could do it.
• Turn A Gundam is the absolute best of Gundam, but it plays with the formula and calls back to the themes in everything prior. This one is technically alternate universe, but you should watch another full Gundam series first (0079 -> Zeta -> CCA would be good). The more Gundam you've seen, the harder this one hits, because it does a number of things that Gundam just does not do.
• Unicorn and Narrative were OK, I guess. Kind of felt like a more serious sequel to Double Zeta that integrated Char's Counterattack.
• Origin is good, and you can watch it any time after Char's Counterattack if you need more Char.

The newest one was GQuuuuuuX last spring, but it was major fanservice that probably only really made sense if you've seen 0079 -> Zeta -> Double Zeta.

I always recommend production order.

if you want to get into main timeline, i recommend original series

for non-main timeline i would personally recommend Iron Blooded Orphans, 00, or Turn A

personally i prefer the non-main timeline shows myself but that opinion tends to attract the ire of very tedious adults

the first gundam i watched was witch from mercury, tbh I would pick the one that sounds most appealing to you.

Probably pick one that looks interesting to you or you had prior interest in. Then, maybe go back and watch other stuff if you like it. There aren't that many direct sequels.

My first Gundam was Mobile G Fighter, which doesn't have anything to do with any of the other series (also don't recommend it as a 1st one to watch though).

Just start with the original imo. Otherwise if there’s one you specifically wanted to see you can probably just jump to it. Here’s a spreadsheet that might help. It’s a little out of date and I don’t really agree with the watch orders, but it will help you see what stories are connected.

08th MS Team is a cult classic for a reason, though it has some cringey anime shit going on, it's still a solid self-contained story set in the original timeline and it's a relatively short watch.

Like Demifriend said the original 1979 series is the best start; the YouTube channel GundamInfo has the 3 movies which are a good condensation of the story. Next in the list is the direct sequel, Zeta Gundam, but the New Translation movies leave out some important stuff so the 50 episode series is best for Zeta.

I'd suggest watching Char's Counterattack after that to finish out the whole Char & Amuro saga, but that's moreso because the chronologic sequel ZZ Gundam didn't do it for me & it doesn't add much to the Char/Amuro arc. You can stick with ZZ and/or get into the One Year War side stories like The 08th MS Team (how I got into Gundam), 0080 War In The Pocket, or 0083 Stardust Memory.

That's a lotta content for now but from there you can go on to Victory Gundam (doomer Yoshiyuki Tomino trying to get fired) and an amazing payoff to the whole IP in Turn A Gundam (bloomer Tomino believing in multiverses or some shit)

Depends on if you care about jumping into the main timeline of the original series right away or not

If you do then I'd recommend the original Gundam but if you want something more self contained that doesn't have any direct connections to other shows then I'd say Iron Blooded Orphans is a great place to start