As some of you know, I have a long-term love of Zenith three-handers, a fascination with what
@ConElPueblo has characterized well as "obscurity, elegance and technical merit." Here another model that has caught my interest (thanks to friends
@kyle L and
@giuseppe.totaro for feeding the bear). At first glance, just another(!) elegant Zenith dress watch from the Ephrem Jobin era, this one becomes more interesting when the eye registers the recessed crown.
The crown is nearly flush with the edge of the case, which has a little cutaway for your fingernail to pull the crown out. Setting it still puts your manicure at risk, but the visual effect of the design is undeniable.
Manufacturer is Spillmann, which seems to have had a patent on it. Many of the casebacks are marked 'Brevet'
The engine in Jobin's superb 133.8, or the date variant cal 71.
Without the projection of the crown, the watch looks sleek, modern and imposing, as if cut from a single block of metal. It comes in steel, and both rose and yellow gold. Note the effect of the shape of the bezel, different in these two steel examples. The one with the two facets handles the light entirely different than the flat one, which I prefer - it emphasizes the perfect circularity of the case.
In gold, the flat bezel is a beautiful discus of metal, and, IMO, the simpler dial fits the clean design better than a more complicated one.
There is surprising variation in the cases with respect to size and details. These must have been made in several small production runs. The monster in the bunch is a very rare cal. 71
The case is obviously larger to the eye than the others (a full 38mm - find another dress watch of that era of similar size! - vs 36-37mm for the others), and heavier in the hand.
The profile is different too, with heavier, more substantial lugs as thick as the full height of the case body. It's on the bottom of the stack
Another distinctive Spillmann
