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

 

Hi Georg,
A very interesting topic. Thank you for sharing!
Italian forums seems to be a great source for information on older chronographs. Unfortunately my Italian is bad, and Google Translate is not very geared towards horological terminology
I have a Zenith cal 122 (UG281) with a similar appearance. I suspect mine is newer? But I am still awaiting for my Zenith book to arrive in order to look for more information on it.


It is in for servicing right now. This is a very small chronograph (about 30mm in diameter).

Movement serial is 117394. Case number 81876 33

 

Interesting read, appreciate sharing, have also been studying other Brands, lots of rare pieces out there for our discovery. Congrats on your Treasure!

 

Bravissimo !

 

Very cool. Small correction - Breguet numerals look like this:

 

Very cool watch, love the movement.

 

6 posts in the first 7 threads has been common lately, now with with a link to your buisness in every one....

Getting a bit............

 

Sorry, didn't mean to offend you or anyone else. I have gone ahead and edited all my posts to remove the reference to my watchmaking website.

Force of habit, especially on a forum that doesn't allow signatures or links to outside references.

I am sure members would like to have options for watch work, that's all, but I understand your concern. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

Again, apologies for this...

Rob

 

Thanks Jordan, I thougthed that Breguet is just this kind of "art deco" styled numerals. Does it only mean applied numerals like the Patek you showed?
Btw, that Patek is a real beauty, I would like to have one at my collection, but the prices for PP

 

Breguet has some models with these numerals as well This style of hands is also called "Breguet Hands".
(Not my watch!!!)

 

I love these catalog (?) designs! Very cool.

 

My (before my wife adopted it) UG Compur has a very similar font on the dial. I was able to get an extract from UG that shows it was manufactured in 1936.

 

Hello Shaun,

thank you for sharing the pictures, what a beautiful watch. The numerals really look the same.
Today I have contacted Zenith and ask them if they have further information about the watch and this kind of movement.
I hope they will answer. If there is something new concerning the watch I will inform all of you here at the forum.
We will see what will happen...

 

Beautiful watches, thank you for sharing those photos and histories.

 

The Zenith heritage department has answered quickly, but unfortunately they don´t have any further information about my 1. geneation Zenith Compur chronograph.
They wrote: "When trying to date the watch we noticed that the date for this specific number was not registered in our registry". But maybe we will find other sources to get a better understanding of these early two pusher chronographs.

 

I just want to add a better photo of this 1. gen. Zenith Compur, that shows the real beauty of it.
Still in original finding condition...

 

Such a beauty.....


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