2021 is an amazing year. How I finally landed my grail Zenith A386

Misterred

Hi all, I have been inactive on this forum for quite a bit but am a long time lurker. I am a 40 year old guy from The Netherlands and have been into watches for around 12 years now. My watch journey started with collecting some not so spectaculair watches from the likes of Gevril (Why?!) and Edox, moving my attention to iffy Russian pilot watches a bit later, and in 2014 I finally bought my first “real” watch: a Omega Speedmaster Mark II Racing dial. A year later I was lucky to stumble into an Omega Anakin Skywalker I was able to buy and I still possess. This must have also been the time in which I learned about this big competition between Heuer, Zenith and Seiko to launch the first automatic chronograph ever. And this is how I fell in love with the Zenith A386. At that time you could buy a nice A384 for around €4000,a nice A385 for around €5000 and a nice A386 for €7000 or €8000. I did not have that kind of money at that time but I knew I needed to have a a386 eventually. And I thought I could save that amount of money relatively easily…

Over the course of the years after a couple of new jobs and some salary hikes I was able to save some money. But I was always spending it as well. Some for a good reason, some not. But I was buying a house, getting a new and expensive hobby like road biking which also did not help, and sometimes losing focus by buying other watches as well. And with the market for vintage watches only going upwards, with Zeniths from the ‘60 even going faster up in price, my beloved A386 was far out of reach.

Fast forward to 2021. After buying an expensive road bike in 2020 that left yet again a dent in my savings, I made a promise to myself to now finally focus on getting the only watch I really needed: the Zenith A386 and not to lose track this time. Corona and the whole lock down situation caused one good thing: I could not spend money on food and drinks in town. And finally my budget grew to the sort of budget needed to land a Zenith A386. But while you can have the money and the demand for the watch, there is also this thing which is called ‘supply’. The A386 ones for sale were on Chrono24 and were either stupidly expensive or not that good pieces. It was hard to keep the focus on my goal; acquiring a A386. Especially as I saw a Omega Darth Vader popping up for sale. For the first time since, well… basically forever. But I found the power within to not lose track and by the time it was summer here in Europe I finally found a piece for sale in Germany that seemed OK’ish. But there was no picture of the movement and there were some things really off the seller could not explain. So when he sold that one to someone else I didn't really mind. Now fast forward to today. Two weeks ago I saw a pristine example for sale, again in Germany. I almost could not believe it was a 50 year old example but thought it was the reissued one. So I reached out to the seller, explained in English who I was and what I wanted. I received a real friendly message back in English explaining some things. It was the original A386 and just came back from a revision at Zenith. Then we started exchanging more and more messages. It was a gift to him in 1999 when he graduated from college. After some back and forth about the price we reached an agreement and I made plans to come and see the piece in real life in Germany. So this weekend I went on a road trip into Germany to visit the seller and have a look at the watch. It was the first time that I even saw an original A386 in person. The watch was as fantastic as I expected so I of course bought it. So there I was, in Germany in the possession of my grail watch! I was so happy I finally managed to pull this off. The whole way back I was in a sort of ecstatic mood. And with acquiring my grail watch the year of 2021 became even more special to me. Despite all the Covid misery this has been an amazing year for me. In March 2021 I got married, and two months later we had our first son in May. Now the year ends with this.

Now more about the watch. It is a A386 Mark III on a leather band with the original dial and like I said, fully restored by Zenith. The case has been retouched, all the hands were replaced, the tachymeter bezel was replaced and so were the pushers. I knew the watch came with a non original Zenith A386 crown. Normally all this previously mentioned work would have scared me away but the great thing with this watch is all the parts that were replaced by Zenith came included. Apparently Zenith replaces all the hands of the watches that come in that contain tritium. And not because those hands are rubbish and need replacement. The seller told me he got it from his uncle in 1999 after finishing university but hardly wore it as he found it too delicate. His uncle bought it in 1992 at a local jeweller. And the great thing is; this is all documented. I got the original receipts, some pre-internet research or background information of this watch his uncle did, and a letter from his uncle to the seller announcing this great gift. And also the documentation about the restoration from Zenith is there. As this was my first time ever seeing an A386 in person I was a bit surprised how small and light it is. Compared to my Omega Anakin Skywalker this is a very tiny watch. But it fits my wrist perfectly.

So now it is two days later and I am happy with the watch and all its provenance. This watch is the perfect watch. It is sporty, it stylish, the size is perfect. Just a total beauty with those different sub dial colors. And the seller was also such an amazing guy who I felt really connected with. He mentioned he was happy to sell this to someone who would take care of this watch as it still holds emotional value to him because of his uncle. And it turned out I was not even the highest bidder but he already promised to sell it to me and he stuck with that. I will probably never sell this watch. I am considering using some of the replaced parts like the hands and tachymeter and turning the watch into its more original state. Building it Back Better! Especially since there was nothing wrong with the hands, except they contain tritium, this would make the watch look even more beautiful. I will definitely be on the lookout for an original a386 crown and of course a Gay Freres ladder bracelet with the right end links.

So the moral of this story... Focus is important to be able to reach your horological goals. But also a friendly seller who sees in you the perfect next host for his watch helps of course. So seller, if you ever read this story, you will know it's you, I cannot thank you enough.

I hope you like this story and I wish you all happy holidays for now and hope you all will have a great 2022 in which a lot of grail watches can acquired.