Hello,
who can help me with this beautiful Zenith? I have zero experience with Zenith watches.
It's 33.5 to 34 mm and it has a 12.4P inside, it dates back to 1943 and looks very beautiful to my eyes. The strangest thing is the case that opens on its own.
Please have a look at the photographs.
Maybe it can be military? I've never seen this strange way to divide the case.
Please help me if you can explain me more.

Thank you!

 

Hands look wrong, lume dial with no lume hands...

 

Yes, they look wrong, but apart from this have you seen this case?

 

looks like there’s a small black line on the min hand. Could that be old lime?

 

What is that? Looks the remnant of a broken hand

 

For comparison

 

Definitely not military.

 

Sorry, I didn't mean to necropost, but I thought this might also be useful to someone interested in the subject. I have a Zenith watch which also dates back to 1943 and comes in a similar slide-in case. This watch was restored a few years ago by a watchmaker/collector who specializes in vintage pieces, and he was quite surprised by the case. He advised that these watches should be worn with a one-piece strap to secure the watch 'core' within the outer case. I've attached a few pictures for reference (the one with the case back was taken prior to restoration). From what I know, the watch was originally purchased in Egypt.

 

What restoration was done?

 

Movement overhaul, new crystal, modern lume, case cleaning / polish

 

This looks like a clockwork from a Zenith Dienstuhr DH. It was indeed used in WW2. Like with the B-Watches for the airforce, the Dienstuhr was produced for army soldiers. When you google Dienstuhr DH you will find at least 10 different brand who produced the watch, the measurements, templates etc came from the German military. It looks like the typical caliber 12-4-6. The serial number is not far from the one my clockwork has, so I would assume it is also from 1943.

BUT: As said before, hands are not original, dial looks repainted and the case back is clearly after WW2. The original case back has the engraving D then serial number H.

What happened though after WW2, due to lack of material, a lot of old stuff and newer parts where combined.

Maybe that has a hint.

 

The intruiging thing to me is the case serial: 8 mio, which is way too high for the age. However: I know of about 10 chrono’s with 8 mio serials which also date from the 1940’s…

 

Well the >8 Million seies number is right for the time. I have a 1940 beginning with 8.38xxxxxx but those had a screw bottom and had the serial number also engraved in the bottom.

 

One of the earliest Cal 133 has case number 86xxx and that’s 1948 so 83 makes sense. The dial, I believe, is original. Hands ?

 

800k or 8 mio?

 

But how does that tie into this?

 

8 mil

 

Well, like said above, the movement number provided seems to be 1943, also the case number but the caseback looks post WW2.

 

For context, the case number on mine is also 8 mil (8392999)

 

Is that a chrono? Probably not based on the data I have