Hi all, Came across this on WUS on the lack of quality in Zenith El Primo finishing: http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=772368 Interested in your views.
Honestly, I don't buy Zenith for its finishing and agree that finishing is below several of the other high end brands. If I wanted that, I will go for Lange or Chopard LUC. But I will willingly plough my money into an El Primero any day for that hi-beat movement.
If I remember correctly, this was a watch of uncertain provenance bought through Amazon. Res ipsa loquitur as my legal friends say. Avoid the whole issue - buy vintage. Although it may not be a direct reflection of finishing, I can tell you El Primero is an extremely robust and dependable movement. A lot of talk focuses on its high frequency and frequent servicing requirements (which is bunk in the era of modern lubricants), but my experience from a fairly large sample (*ahem* ) of Primeros is that - in addition for the accuracy for which it is known - it is just this side of bullet proof.
First of all, it's WUS - a place where douchebags have been multiplying like rabbits. Secondly, that was on the "Affordables" forum - a place where people have a chip on their shoulder because they can't afford better watches and spend a lot of time trying to justify Invicta and Sea Gull. Third, Lou is correct - a watch bought from a grey dealer on Amazon could very well be of "uncertain provenance", which I'll bluntly say could be a reject or return. And my final point is that if you put ANY watch under 10X magnification or more you WILL find imperfections.
Aside from the issue of provenance this is a sample of ONE. Don't think you can make any kind of valid conclusion on this basis.
I'm clearly not the only one that thinks they're being a bit anally retentive over it. I mean, if you magnify enough, you're always going to find imperfections, that's the nature of anything that it is man-made. I still think that it's a gorgeous watch, and those little imperfections (and they are extremely small) give it character unique to that watch. Any mechanical watch is inherently imperfect, and that's what gives them soul
He really shoots himself in the foot re the el Primero if you look at the last sentence of his first post in this one. Perhaps he should examine himself under the microscope. http://forums.watchuseek.com/f71/have-you-ever-tried-take-apart-watch-put-back-again-778685.html
There's a whole difference between being able to use a computer toy and having the technical skills/knowledge to take a watch apart and put it back together again. I like to think that I am fairy adept mechanically but it took me 5 wrecked watches before I got one working again. I bought a job lot of 30 cheap movements on eBay and took it from there. I would say that when you can do 5 in a row, then is the time to try on something worthwhile. Build up in terms of complications and don't overstep your ability - I'm a long way off trying a chronograph. The other tip is to take plenty of pictures during disassembly so you know what it should look like when you put it back together. The last tip is to be patient and not to force anything - that cracking sound was probably a pivot snapping off. That is only either expensive or fatal. If you can do this, a top end rebuild on a 911 should be easy and take it from me, it isn't.
Yes, but it sure teaches you to check all the pivots for jewel alignment and fit before torquing down on bridge screws.