Zenith At Baselworld

The proportions of the original look better to me. Looks like they supersized the re-edition a bit much - plus they didn't reap any of the benefits of the increased size in terms of legibility.

Agree - the proportions are out of whack (although this pic may exagerrate that). When your eye has already been broken in by the vintage original it's hard to consider the new one on its own merits alone.

For those not in the know, the original is a prototype of which it is believed only 25 were made. Shortly after Zenith introduced El Primero on January 10, 1969 - and while Heuer-Hamilton-Breitling-Buren was returning to the workbench to revise their competing caliber 11 because of various problems, Zenith introduced the first elaboration of their caliber, the 3019 PHF, which added Day-Month-Moonphase to the base automatic chronograph-date. The prototype was Zenith's first effort to house the caliber, before it ultimately went with the slab-case Espada. It is in the opinion of many - including me - a far finer design, but it never went into production.

An example was sold at Christie's in May 2012 with a presale estimate of CHF 7-11,000. Many of us turned pockets inside out to raise funds for the inevitable battle, only to find out on sale day that we had brought a knife to a gunfight. Final sale price was CHF 37,500, being paid by the manufacture itself.

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/...3626&sid=7a9243fb-1a68-4b31-93ed-ef99a3c6eb7e

For Primero fans, it remains one of the holiest of grails.