Curious about Zeniths from Besançon

shishy · May 21, 2018

I saw a watch recently where the seller was offering a Zenith that was produced in Besançon.

Their claim was that all the Zenith watches without "Swiss" on movement, case, dial, and with 6 characters (instead 7) are produced in Besançon.

Is this correct? Asking for my reference.

CaptainWinsor · May 21, 2018

I believe so. Zenith shipped the parts there to be assembled to avoid higher import duties. A lot of caliber 106.

Fialetti · May 22, 2018

That's correct. Most (but not all) Besançon Zeniths do not mention country of origin, and the numbers follow a different series. There is an informative post over at this blog: https://orologivintage.blogspot.hk/2018/03/zenith-besancon-ovvero-gli-zenith-made.html

bubba48 · May 22, 2018

Correct. This is mine

shishy · May 22, 2018

Thanks all for your input, good to know. As always, beautiful watches 😀.

François Pépin · Oct 22, 2018

As already said, it is correct. I will add that Besançon's archives have been lost, so not easy to date the movement (and the watch) with the serial number!

Curious about Zeniths from Besançon

shishy

CaptainWinsor

Fialetti

bubba48

shishy

François Pépin

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