Make that "Unusual Zenith Divers, Part II." Zenith 1000m diver, cal 2552pc, 43 x 49 x 15mm, ca. 1970. I have seen photos of blue, orange, yellow and black-dialed Zenith deep divers before, but never a white one; I'm calling it the White Whale. This one was clearly used as a tool - possibly to scrape a few barnacles off a rusty hull - but hey, it is a tool, and super rare, so I let a few dings slide. . Here it is with a proper GF bracelet borrowed from a Defy diver. The end pieces were too short, however, and with a little twist of the bracelet they would tend to grab the spring bars and disengage them. So apparently end pieces matter... who knew? Maybe an old Tropic band would be safer, and I think a black band would look sharp with this one. The lume has gone a kind of mother-of-pearl silvery-green, which I like. 2552pc inside, with serial number 711xxxx under the balance wheel, ca. 1970. The giant rubber gasket appears to be in pretty good shape.
Very nice - I don't find it to be in such sad shape. And I love the chequered bezel even more than when you posted it as a preview. That's very interesting. You'll have me scurrying off to crack open my Defys - I don't recall seeing too many 2552s with serial numbers. What's your experience? All this is whipping me into a Deep Diver frenzy....
Yes, I have several 2552pc's, and they all have a 7xxxxxx serial number under the balance wheel. Just noticed it myself for the first time on this one, then checked the others, and sure enough. No serial number on the 2562pc's.
Maybe not that rare and clearly used as a tool in its day - my black 1000m is still a favourite. Today it is of course retired and lives a lazy desk diver life. But - LouS - if you happen to have an early version UGP Sub, I would trade this watch along with an appropriate amount of money for it. Happened to find a NOS dial and NOS inner bezel - first version... Regards JE
What was te deepest that 'normal' production watches went? 1000m seems incredibly deep! And what is the deepest people have ever actually been - and actually out in the water, not just on a submarine/submersible
This is now the 5th time you've bumped a thread to try to help you sell that watch, just leave it at that mate.
I really like the vintage divers. To answer your questions 200m is generally accepted as the standard for a scuba dive watch but in the 60s and 70s various watch companies embarked on a my watch goes deeper than yours race. According to Guinness, the deepest dive ever made from the surface by a diver on open circuit SCUBA was made by Nuno Gomes. Gomes made the dive to 318.25 meters (1044 feet) in the Red Sea on 15 June 2005, beating the 313 meter (1027 feet) record set by Mark Ellyatt in Thailand in 2003. He was in the water for more than twelve hours. The deepest I have been is 45 meters and PADI recommends that all recreational divers shouldn't exceed 30m for a non compression stop dive. Saturation divers have achieved much greater depths but require pressure chambers or diving bells to do this. A group of COMEX divers working on a pipeline connection in 1988 in the Mediterranean were recorded at 530+ meters (1750+ M) There is some interesting stuff here on the Comex divers http://diving-watch.org/COMEX-ROLEX-