Greetings to all you Zenith fans. Thanks to Lou I am now familiar with and registered on this forum. The main focus of my collection is Heuer but it was not long before I discovered Zenith and I am big fan. I currently have the A386 and both silver and black dial Sub Sea cal.146. I am always looking for more. All my watches are on my web site at www.heuerworld.com The question I have for the experts regards this dial which I might add I bought from a forum member and friend - bought and sold in good faith. Does anyone know when these were produced and what would the general consensus be of fitting it to an original A384? I look forward to your comments and discussion. regards Paul www.heuerworld.com
Very nice photography on your website, the Zenith guys will chime in soon enough on the dial, but the macro shots of the Heuer dials look brilliant! and Welcome btw!
Welcome Paul. Love your collection. I've been drooling over your 146HP's for a while. Finally found a black A373x... still waiting for the right silver one to come along. I would personally consider this type of replacement dial for an original A384 only as a last resort, i.e. original dial totally trashed or absent. I presume the 'L's around "Swiss Made" are for Lumi-Nova, and thus that the dial is post-1993, but this is pure conjecture. Others may have something more specific.
I have an A384 with such a dial, not realizing when I bought it a while ago now that it was a replacement, or service, dial, not an original dial in really good shape! As far as I know these were produced by or for Zenith for the replacement-in-service of dials that had deteriorated, which happened quite a lot with original A384 and A386 dials (there are "official" replacement dials for both). It looks great fit with an original A384. It just isn't original, which will turn off most true collectors, so best to try to find another original. But as has been demonstrated with the A386, others don't seem to care given the look. If selling, its true status should be disclosed IMHO. welcome to the site!
Paul, welcome and thanks for posting. Anyone who hasn't seen Paul's work at his website owes it to himself to browse a bit - it's legendary vintage watch photography and catnip for chronograph fans. Anyone care to venture when these dials were produced, or care to speculate why Zenith scrupled to make an exact reproduction of the original "El Primero" script on these but not on the A 386 replacements?
Just to be clear: I would wear a replacement-dialed A384 with pride, but I would be very reluctant to replace an original dial unless it was really trashed. As Chris notes, a replacement dial did not prevent at least one A386 from reaching a very high price at auction.
Thanks for the welcome and your comments. I think it is interesting that there are replacement dials (386 & 384) in the first place and both of which are very close to the originals with some small (and important) exceptions that stand out like a sore thumb to the educated collector. And as we have come to expect in our quest for perfection, its these small and significant details that make all the difference. Just today I heard about a well known dealer who bought some original dial stamping equipment (brand not disclosed) which I can only assume could be used to produce original dials. Could this be a possibility with these Zenith dials of which I am sure there are more than just the two mentioned previously. Food for thought. best regards Paul www.heuerworld.com PS I know we all love watch pics so here is one to spice up my post
Hi Paul LouS hijacked a thread the other day and now I follow his lead.... Would you please have a look at the "other watch brands forum" (in a minute or so - I have to write the post first) and give your view on my 11630 Autavia? Kind regards JE