Here's an unusual version of the Captain Turtle - the grey dial. Non-chronometer, different markers from the othes. Anyone know anything about it? Catalog evidence for the model? Anything? A spate of these sold a few months ago, and nothing since.
And a flat dial - as opposed to domed. In my opinion it does not compliment the shape/design of the case as the others do. There seem to be a small gap/height difference between the dial and the glass ring? I am a little sceptic but at the same time I do remember seeing a similar being advertised/sold on ebay quite some time ago (might be this one though). And why would anyone go thru the trouble of "fixing" a watch of this kind...? It is not as there are fortunes to be made on steel turtles (not even on gold).
Happy days LouS! I am at my summer house where I have my ancient laptop stashed in the attic. When I wrote the above I just thought "hmmm...I might have saved that picture..." I saved it in 2011. I am a little uncertain if it was on ebay or just generally on the net. I have no idea who´s it is. It looks like the lume is quite different from yours - making this another watch. Paired with the timespan since this one surfaced - the likelyhood of it being a legit model is very, very close to a 100%.
Could you give us a movement shot when you get a chance please LouS. Would be interesting to see In the shot with the three it makes the watch look like it would wear bigger than normal.
While clearly an uncommon variation, I see no reason whatsoever to question the authenticity of the watch.
Correct about the dial - not nearly as "natural" a fit as the domed chronometer dials. But holding it in hand, a loupe inpsection reveals no obvious fit & finish problems. That's interesting. I only starting being aware of these models last year. Knowing that they've been around a little longer is encouraging! Theres a 2562PC inside, which is not an ideal fit for the case number (715D671). I've got photos from another from the 715D series, but with a 2552PC. Later substitution? Zenith were pretty compulsive about getting the "28800" on the dial for the 2562-engined watches. No bigger than the others. It does give a leaner, more modern, less cluttered look.
The Cs worry me a bit mostly the one in automatic, and the T in captain Auto sport movement and looking dial layout, But your knowledge in Zenith way outshines my Turtle only research
I like it and think it's legit. If not, whoever frankenized it should be directing his considerable skills toward something more profitable.
Let me float a hypothesis. It was not unknown for Zenith to produce a limited run watch for a specific market and neither was it unknown for them to make use of items they found in a drawer somewhere, such as the late edition 135s. Imagine they had found a drawer full of turtle cases after they had stopped making the turtle and rather than ask Singer to tool up again for the turtle dial, they just designed a new finish for what was a fairly ubiquitous dial layout in the early to mid 70s. This could be such a run and would also account for it not having a chronometre badged dial or movement. This dial will fit all of the 25xx PC movements so a 2552 in one and a 2562 in another is not out of the question. As I said, this is pure speculation, without basis but with precedent. I will consider these to be the "bit-box turtles" from now on.
