This beauty looks to have sold for around 9750 Euro. http://www.chronocentric.com/forums/chronotrader/index.cgi?page=1;md=read;id=38950
Crazy price, but nice set. A whole lot better of a case than the no-edge-definition jellybean offered on Ebay http://www.ebay.com/itm/231508590652?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:ITPurchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network
The case is brutally polished. All of the edges have been obliterated. Note how the seller is careful not to give any oblique views where it would be very obvious. Also, as a footnote, the movement is replaced with a modern Primero movement (Cal 400 instead of Cal 3019PHC), and the subdial hands are service replacements. Compare and contrast: The nice one The overpolished one The nice one again on the oblique view
Wonder if you sprinkled some Belgian pixie dust in the second one it'd have enough meat left on it to look decent afterwards.
Even assuming the Belgian pixie is in top form, you still have a bum movement and service hands on the subdial. Excellent dial and Bezel though. Izzat worth 6600 clams?
wow. this is very educational. thanks LouS! i was wondering why no one had snatched up the one on ebay. so challenging to find good offerings. Seems like over-polishing is common and something to watch out for. Once service center I work with would polish the crap out of my watches if I didn't emphasize "NO POLISHING".
They cater to the "OOOH SHINY" segment of the clientele, which is most of them. This particular case, common to refs A 384, 385, 3817 and 3818, is a special problem when it comes to polishing. It is an odd shape, and there is not a lot of spare metal in it. It is extremely easy to screw up with anything but absolutely expert polishing. The case on the early Defys is similar in this respect.
So Lou, for educational purposes, the chronocentric watch looks to have had a light polish(the edges at all four corners look a little soft). Is the top deck sunburst original or touched up? Looks original, but I probably wouldn't recognize a touch up. Reason I ask is the top deck looks so perfect, hard to imagine no slight scratches in 45 years. Please educate the unwashed.
I agree with your assessment completely - slightly softened edges, finish too good to be original. Jorge (the seller) says it has been polished, but whoever did it did a decent job. It IS possible to polish these cases well - once or twice. It just has to be done expertly.
Yes, very fine, very subtle and only in a certain light. Also the subdials have a concentric circle texture, not obvious in most pictures. Add in that waxing and waning second track and the gray & blue tracks around the subdials, plus some aged, butter-yellow lume and it is Zenith's most mesmerizing dial - the A386 not excepted! TIme to confess - I bought that beaten up one that was sold a few days ago - pure visceral buy. The A3818 is the watch that started it all for me. Not just Primeros, but vintage in general, and this one was listed so similarly to my first vintage watch it was uncanny (although multiples of the price). The first time it was listed, the sale went sour. The second time, no bids. The third time, I was the only bidder. TS Elliot was a watch collector: "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time"
I'll raise you a Prufrock: There will be time, there will be time To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet; There will be time to murder and create, And time for all the works and days of hands, That lift and drop a question on your plate; Time for you and time for me, And time yet for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions, Before the taking of a toast and tea