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valjoux72
·When I saw this Zenith Compur for sale the first time, I was interested at once.
Why?
1. The pure and beautiful dial with breguet numbers looks very elegant, missing the inner scales gives thedial/watch a modern look.
2. Stainless steel cases are very rare on this early chronographs. And the sizes of the case with 38mm is for most of us simply the best. Combined with the stepped case design and olive pushers for me highly desireable...
3. The very sympathic seller mentioned that the movement was not as expexteced a Martel movement but based on Valjoux 22GH, what made the watch even more interesting for me. Instead of "normal" two pusher chronograph with mixed start stop function with both pushers, it has start/stop/reset function on pusher at 2. The pusher at 4 can be used to stop the chronofunction and to restart it at the same time without going back to 12. A function I only knew from some of the first Universal Geneve Compur watches before.
4. Hands, dial and case looks all original to me. Only crown may has been replaced at some point.
So after two weeks the watch arrived safely. Looking to the pictures above I guess some of you may understand why I was delighted from what I found.
Reading some interesting articles on the web and at the italian forum "orologi.forumfree" about the history of the early Universal/Zenith Compur started in 1934, I got in contact with Nicola1960, who is a really profund expert for vintage chronographs of this time. I sent him over some pics and the material I have found.
Nicola wrote an absolutley terrific article about the watch at "orologi.forumfree", which gives an excellent overview about the history of the first ever made Universal Geneve and Zenith chronographs with 2 pushers, which you can read here.
I think our community should take a closer look to these early Compurs from Universal Geneve and Zenith, because they are in my point of view an important historical milestone in the watch history of both brands!
Unfortunately his english and my italian skills are a bit limited, so we can not translate the article smootly in english. If there is someone bilingual italian/english in our community who would like to support his great work, please contact him or me. I think it would be nice to transfer his knowledge to OF, so that all of us can share his writing!
At the end I would like to thank him for his work personally. I like very much the idea that this kind of "international collaboration" here at OF and at other international watch forums brings us/our world a bit closer together.
Best regards
Georg
Why?
1. The pure and beautiful dial with breguet numbers looks very elegant, missing the inner scales gives thedial/watch a modern look.
2. Stainless steel cases are very rare on this early chronographs. And the sizes of the case with 38mm is for most of us simply the best. Combined with the stepped case design and olive pushers for me highly desireable...
3. The very sympathic seller mentioned that the movement was not as expexteced a Martel movement but based on Valjoux 22GH, what made the watch even more interesting for me. Instead of "normal" two pusher chronograph with mixed start stop function with both pushers, it has start/stop/reset function on pusher at 2. The pusher at 4 can be used to stop the chronofunction and to restart it at the same time without going back to 12. A function I only knew from some of the first Universal Geneve Compur watches before.
4. Hands, dial and case looks all original to me. Only crown may has been replaced at some point.
So after two weeks the watch arrived safely. Looking to the pictures above I guess some of you may understand why I was delighted from what I found.
Reading some interesting articles on the web and at the italian forum "orologi.forumfree" about the history of the early Universal/Zenith Compur started in 1934, I got in contact with Nicola1960, who is a really profund expert for vintage chronographs of this time. I sent him over some pics and the material I have found.
Nicola wrote an absolutley terrific article about the watch at "orologi.forumfree", which gives an excellent overview about the history of the first ever made Universal Geneve and Zenith chronographs with 2 pushers, which you can read here.
I think our community should take a closer look to these early Compurs from Universal Geneve and Zenith, because they are in my point of view an important historical milestone in the watch history of both brands!
Unfortunately his english and my italian skills are a bit limited, so we can not translate the article smootly in english. If there is someone bilingual italian/english in our community who would like to support his great work, please contact him or me. I think it would be nice to transfer his knowledge to OF, so that all of us can share his writing!
At the end I would like to thank him for his work personally. I like very much the idea that this kind of "international collaboration" here at OF and at other international watch forums brings us/our world a bit closer together.
Best regards
Georg
