Cousins.

 

Non issue, what intrigues me is it seems the issued version which numbered 2,000 ish is much more in demand.... (non issue numbered around 500, if one believes the saying that around 2,500 were produced)

 

https://issuu.com/gigigi3/docs/we_were_soldiers

GIGI

 

Wonderful story, thanks loads for sharing.

 

Agreed, I understand why an issued piece would command a premium, though I've always felt the rarity of the civilian piece could outweigh that and bring the price difference to parity.

 

Two thoughts. First, people often pay a premium for issued pieces, for better or worse, based on rarity, cool factor or some other intangible element. Second, a lot of issued pieces were decommissioned or destroyed and are not available to the market.

 

I'm under the impression most decommissioned pieces were just kept by the last guy to be issued it. It would have been a shame to let such beauties be destroyed.

 

The odd thing is, I can find at least almost a dozen of issue piece for sale right now and Nil non issue. (This is pure curiosity, I am in the business of hoarding but never selling).

 

I’m starting to think I “need” one of these...

 

Fantastic article Gigi, thanks for sharing. What a nice bit of storytelling to go with the watch.

 

nice image Gigi

 

My take on the Zenith Cairelli: It was developed as a military watch and was issued as such. For some reason there were left-over watches that were retailed to civilians. The only difference is the caseback engraving and the usage. Doesn't surprise me that issued is more attractive. It is to me at least. Non-issued is just surplus stock without the cool story. I don't see any rarity value in that, even if more were issued than not. Sorry.

 

The reason is Budget cut, to which the order was already fulfilled by mr. Cairelli but he didn’t get paid. So he dicided to sell what he wasn’t paid for in his shop. I am not into the story, I just like the watch. And condition to me is important. To each man, his choice of whiskey, I guess (and no reason to say sorry for anything.... if any, I owe my apologies to @sailor because the thread is half hijacked, so folks out there gather your CP-2 from your safe, put them on your wrists and post em here! @Adri et al)

 

I had a Bulova Marinestar with the Cairelli case.. is that also ok ?

 

No apology necessary. The more discussion the better!

 

My issued example...
Long sought, eBay found, and still a favorite.

 

These are amazing. Just gorgeous military chronos. Making me very jealous.

 

Here is mine.