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Lbreak
路Howdy everyone!
I am getting back into the vintage game and was looking for some 18k candies. Came across this Zenith 146D, and have been trying to find out more about this example and the reference. Below attaches some photos from the listing.
I went down a bit of a rabbit hole trying to see if I can figure out whether this is a franken or factory... while I am 80% confident that it should be original, it's time to seek opinion from my most trusted forum 馃
From what I gathered, the reference should be GZ 1.76, but the photos of GC 1.76 I found online (example from Hodinkee https://community.hodinkee.com/watches/121938) seems to have "Base is pulsations" on the outer track, while this example has only numbers. I did find an old thread on OF with a photo of Zenith catalog showing GZ 1.76 without the "pulsation" text.
The indices are placed closer to the minute track, leading me to guess this could either be a factory variation from the Hodinkee example, or a really, really good redial (because the prints and fonts looked pretty good to me)
Case looks sharp, crown and pusher look correct, casebask markings seem correct too. The Swiss Poin莽ons de Ma卯tre with number 128 traces to manufacturer Jung & Fils (ref: https://www.vintagewatchstraps.com/swisspdm.php). I found a few 18k gold zenith from that era with the same marking.
Movement looks clean, I couldn't see any deviation in architecture from other 146D examples I found online. The "Zenith" engraving looks slightly wonky, that left me with a question mark -- but again, various example of this movement I found did show inconsistency in the engraving -- could be just factory variation?
Love to hear your thoughts! It's been a really fun weekend doing this investigation XD
I am getting back into the vintage game and was looking for some 18k candies. Came across this Zenith 146D, and have been trying to find out more about this example and the reference. Below attaches some photos from the listing.
I went down a bit of a rabbit hole trying to see if I can figure out whether this is a franken or factory... while I am 80% confident that it should be original, it's time to seek opinion from my most trusted forum 馃
From what I gathered, the reference should be GZ 1.76, but the photos of GC 1.76 I found online (example from Hodinkee https://community.hodinkee.com/watches/121938) seems to have "Base is pulsations" on the outer track, while this example has only numbers. I did find an old thread on OF with a photo of Zenith catalog showing GZ 1.76 without the "pulsation" text.
The indices are placed closer to the minute track, leading me to guess this could either be a factory variation from the Hodinkee example, or a really, really good redial (because the prints and fonts looked pretty good to me)
Case looks sharp, crown and pusher look correct, casebask markings seem correct too. The Swiss Poin莽ons de Ma卯tre with number 128 traces to manufacturer Jung & Fils (ref: https://www.vintagewatchstraps.com/swisspdm.php). I found a few 18k gold zenith from that era with the same marking.
Movement looks clean, I couldn't see any deviation in architecture from other 146D examples I found online. The "Zenith" engraving looks slightly wonky, that left me with a question mark -- but again, various example of this movement I found did show inconsistency in the engraving -- could be just factory variation?
Love to hear your thoughts! It's been a really fun weekend doing this investigation XD
