French cased bumpers

Since the chronograph world has lost its mind, I have been digging around gold three-handers, an old enthusiasm of mine. About a year and a half ago I stumbled across a french-cased 133.8 in a shop in Paris. Since everyone has a knee-jerk aversion to Non-Swiss cases, I had to indulge my contrarian urges and buy it. Since then, I have kept an eye out for these dress models which seem to be unusual carefully made. The dial invariably has applied markers and a two-tone finish, and is housed in a fairly straightforward circular case with a mock stepped bezel. I have yet to find one with a cal 71.

This early model is in a snap back case featuring unusually elegant spearpoint hands. Dial & movement are marked as foreign manufacture, as required by French law.

Casemaker is EA in a lozenge - anyone know what entity that is?


Case is marked with the french eaglehead 18K hallmark. Serial number does not fit into the swiss Zenith sequence.


The most elegant of these overall is one I found first, NOS from an out of business jewelry store. It has a simple symmetry of fleche markers, and ranks with the most beautiful of the Zenith watches of the era, Captains not excluded.


The case is now screwback, a little thicker and heavier, and made by casemaker with mark AF in a lozenge


The last of these has the most over-the-top dial, resembling one I have seen in a Zenith in steel. Despite the fact that some understatement has been lost, it has an easy appeal.


All in all, a nice little array of well worthy of Ephrem Jobin's superb 133.8.


Here's to everyone's continued aversion to foreign cases!

Beautiful trio, Lou, and good lesson for the young'uns!

Stunning collection! A perfect blend of obscurity, elegance and tecnical merit for a focussed and highly desirable sub-collection. Perfect, perfect, perfect.

What amazes is how clean these are . 👍

Whatever entity AF is, these watches are definitely cool AF (as f**k)!

A stunning trio.

I'm curious what the crowns look like, do they have any logo?

they don't, and I'm not sure which of them are original

I'd have a preference for the EA crown which is the flattest. Also the numerals on that one yum 👍

Thanks for sharing

That's my leading choice for original and my favorite as well. The rest seem out of character with the period and the intent of the watch

Fully agree. Would you also assume the AF one to have an original crown if it is NOS?

Well, I guess I always take NOS with a grain of salt, so I don't think I would make this assumption