Yea looks ok, not a perfect dial but not bad either. What it will sell for is another???? On Chrono24 they are pushing them out at about £5-8000.

 

I reckon it should go for about £4,750 to £5,000. There aren't a lot around at the moment other than ones in Switzerland (affected by the exchange rate) and the shiny re-dials in Thailand.

 

Hey guys,

Sorry I'm a complete newbie here but definitely willing to learn more! What is so special about this watch exactly apart from there are 11,000 of these watches are made during a 15 years period and won some award for 5 years in a row? When I saw the post, I was like pretty good looking watch with reasonable starting price? I opened the ebay link right away and I was very surprised to see that the starting price is GBP 3,000, not even in dollars!

And how can you tell that it is the cal. 135 because I can't seem to see the 135 number from the movement photos that the seller has provided?

 

Ah, newbie, grasshopper. Knowledge is everything!
When you open the back of the watch you can confirm a 135 in several ways, one is just the design of the movement and the placement of the serial number. Also if you look down into the movement along the outer wall you will see '135' stamped in the main plate. another way is to look at the dial. there are about 6-8 different 135 dials, but mostly all the same except for the Port Royal and the ones with Fabre Leube written on the dial. There is always a small second hand circle at the bottom and the word Chronometre on the dial above Zenith and below the star. These are general rules as I am sure someone will add something I missed. You can see a bunch of the dials by Googling 135 cal Zenith and then click images.

 

As the seller says, the movement is recognised as one of the best ever manual calibres. The fact that it won the prestigious competition, five years on the bounce, might not seem much at first glance but you have to consider that the movements used for the competitions were usually made just for competition and never made it into wrist watch cases - I suppose you could think of it as a Formula 1 engine that never goes into a road car. The 135 was designed to be a chronometre and went into production. That is what makes it so special.

Zenith didn't bother sending many examples for chronometre certification back in those days although many of their movements are of chronometre standard. The 135 is the big exception here with only a few of the later ones not being sent for certification. Apparently these days, certification can be carried out in-house - I have only read that in books, so I can't swear to it.

 

The other thing to bear in mind is that you can pay £2,000 for the movement these days.

 

REDIAL, in my view, and not a good one, either.

 

how do you come to that conclusion?

 

The "SWISS MADE" font looks crude, to my eye, and I am suspicious of the amount of space between the words. Also, bear in mind that this later dial variation would be quite easy to copy, given the size and simplicity of the fonts.

I will amend my opinion and say that it may be genuine, but even in that case, it is clearly not the early, and in my view, iconic version. So, if it is a genuine Zenith dial, it is either a service dial or late (and not as fine) version. As I'm sure you know, the classic version uses a different, and finer font. Also note the difference in the "SWISS MADE":

 

Hi
Can't say I agre with this theory. You may be correct, I cannot see it myself. I will look through my five or six pieces and see what variance there is in the 'swiss made'. Perhaps some others might have a view? It is easy for us to discredit a watch by saying it is not correct. So we must be careful not to damage someone's possession by an incorrect attribution.

 

I said "in my view", so others are of course free to disagree.

 

Well I have to agree with Tony C. I'm embarrassed that I didn't notice this earlier. Looks like an old redial to me. The thing to do, of course, if you disagree with him, is to find a photo of a 135 with the same fonts and spacing. I haven't been able to do it.

 

That's just an error at a service. The inner bezel it effectively held in position by the movement/dial so if you put the crystal back in place before casing the movement, it is pot luck whether or not the bezel lines up. If you case it without the crystal, you can adjust the position of the bezel.

 

My mistake too Steve. The one Gigi posted has a rotating bezel

That's Sunday mornings for you.

 

vintage zenith defy orange sub sea with bracelet.. but only for Germany

http://www.ebay.de/itm/321683480328Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network

 

for sure, some of us have a friends in Germany - i will not fight - one is enough for me

 

I don't know if you have seen that but the date switch on two o'clock.
(i think it's a 2552PC and i don't know if this is right).

I'm next to this country but i will not bid on this watch because the seller makes contradictory statements (i really like the watch).

Ungetragene Lagerware (unworn) / mit leichten Lagerspuren (with slightly wearing conditions).

On the other hand the watch is really unclean (strap), that shows me the seller is not really carefully.