Ne release of Cal 135 - what are your thougths?
Price 132.000 CHF

 

Why get one of these when you can get an original? Doesn't really interest me unless they're bringing back a big-balance, precision-focused movement into their general catalog (which they probably won't be doing).

 

Ludicrous. For the price of a single example, one could collect 10+ superior examples of the original.

 

Price is stupid. Love the original, this is just worse and literally like 10 times more expensive than it should be.

 

You’re actually buying one of the original movements that were tested and won in competition. These aren’t the everyday watches on the market.

 

You could buy one in its original case for ~€5000.

 

but it wouldn’t be one of the competition movements

 

No, that's exactly what it would be!

 

Unfortunately I can’t read that. I still believe this is a watershed moment for Zenith

 

You can call it a "watershed" moment, but it has been possible to purchase Zenith (and Longines, etc.) Observatory movements in their original cases for decades, and for a small fraction of the cost of these limited edition watches. They are not easy to find, of course, but this limited edition does not represent a "new" opportunity for collectors to purchase such movements.

As for the graphic above, it's not necessary to read it. The images show you what those Observatory movements typically looked like in their original cases.

 

If it was PP doing this it would be all the talk but since it’s Zenith there’s a lot of negativity. We can agree to disagree

 

I am not a big fan of dress watches.

 

i love it. also love the move to take zenith back to its roots. the price is nuts but what do you expect when you put Bacs and Kari on the watch . . .

 

Nonsense.

I have great respect for Zenith, and the 135 is one of the best manual-wind calibers ever made. Jobim, its designer, also designed the cal. 133 and 133.8 bumper calibers, which I would argue were possibly the best, and most beautiful such calibers ever made.

My negative comment was related to the cost, and I pointed out that Observatory movements have long been available to collectors, in their original form.

As a final, related note, Girard Perregaux sold a small number of their HF Observatory movements in production watches ~55 years ago, and remains, I believe, the only manufacture to have ever done so contemporaneous with the testing. I owned one:

 

Didn’t see that coming.

I really like what they are doing with the brand, a bit less about the price positionning in general, and especially for this LE

 

I’m happy to see Zenith draw attention to one of its triumphs. And they sold out in a hurry, so the market is telling us that they were underpriced! I wonder if there is any significant difference between the 135-O and the “commercial variant.” Also curious to see whether the market for the cal 135 will be affected.

 

I think you’ll see more for sale now and demand may be stronger

 

Lovely watch and an original is a watch I would love but I think I will stick with my current piece which I believe belonged to @Tony C at one point who I see has posted on this thread.