One of our passions, mine for sure, is to permanently seek for zenith watches. That helps to do a picture of the market reality (and how it changes), and sometimes you find something interesting.

I found this Zenith sub sea chronograph in orange, reference A3736. Nos so good condition but excellent price.

First I would like to see how you see the watch, what are the issues, in order to know if it can be solved in the future (as a long term project).




Issues I see:
1-watch case is in poor condition, bad polished, and slightly overpolised? In my opinion, it can be improved up to make it acceptable

2-second hand from chronograph ... it should be orange, and it is relumed (because the different colour to the other hands). it can be professionally painted, or waiting for a vintage one in ebay or somewhere else

3-non original crown at 10 ... very usual ... crown at 3 is correct and seems to be original, although the position and form seems strange to me

4-at least, hour hand of the chronograph is not correct. That hand, or the original, made marks on the subdial ... it could be solved with the correct one

5-black subdials are in medium condition, acceptable

6-back cover seems strange to me, although the numbers of reference and serial, for my eyes, are correct (so I don’t think about overpolish, but an aftermarket piece ... is that posible?)

7-worst is two index: the index at 12 is misaligned. Some glue can be seen ... the index at eleven is not original, seems similar by far, but when you look at that on your wrist, is clear ... what do you think about that?

 

Can’t tell if that’s lint or dirt on the dial or if there are scratches on the crystal. I’d say just stabilize the lume on the hands and correct the color. If the price was right I think it could be a worthy project

 

What price is an excellent price?

 

Six o’clock chrono hand is wrong, seconds hand is generally an orange lollipop. The year of the watch would help with caseback correctness. Inner caseback and movement pics would be a good follow up question for the seller.
Dial, lume and case are not top notch condition but depending on the price it could be a good project

 

I saw it for sale at that ridiculous price... few minutes to think what to do and it was sold! I’m glad it was you who fooled me.
Lollipop hand is uncorrect, ball should be bigger. As you say the big problem is remove 11 and 12 indices and don’t ruin the dial.
Never seen a case number like that (not a problem for me). It’s better than I thought! Great deal! If you have a good watchmaker you will have a great piece paid very little

 

Much less than 5000 eur (that should be a good price)

 

you know, it happens sometimes. This was my lucky shot. I saw it, I bought it. I never thought to receive it, but I bought it using CHRONO24 trusted checkout ... and I have the opportunity to get it back to them if not satisfied (until 15 days).



I didn’t removed the back case yet. Parameters of the movement are good, but the chronograph stops.



Although it is not my main business, I have a company of preowned watches, and some contacts to solve cases and movement for my private collection ... in this case, dial is what worries me most. I don’t know where or if the fault of two index can be solved ...

 

The case back has been doctored. Someone (not Zenith) has engraved a case number on the back, along with the catalog reference number (which should not appear anywhere on the watch).

 

I also saw this one for sale and initial thought was that it's cheap. However, on closer inspection a number of issues as you have covered. The biggest in my view is the dial hour markers. 12 o'clock is wonky and 11 o'clock is incorrect.

The case back has the reference number engraved on it, I've personally not seen that on others and makes me wonder what else has been tampered with.

A good collector friend once told me to go for quality and avoid project pieces. Once you factor in the cost of correct parts you will be pretty much at a price of a good example and have saved a lot of time and effort.

 

That’s completely right. But sometimes time for your passion looking for that pieces, and paying money step by step is not so bad.

Right now I don’t have a lot of projects (only zenith de Luca steel bracelet, and correct hands for A386).

It is necessary to open and see the movement. with that I think I will be ready to make a decision.

 

Pictures with loupe.

looking into detail, I see the inner bezel has something like bubbles under the orange painting ... is this a clue it was repainted? Or bubbles are because it is a vintage, and has been degraded?

of course, another issue: no tritium in the triangle of the bezel

 

I’m agree with you, condition and quality must be a rule collecting watch.
But I think also that this could really be a great deal, price was very very low (if Moyrules@ want he will tell us exactly, but it was far less than 5k).
To me it seems like a calculated risk, Moyrules has two weeks to open the watch, verify if movement is 146 hp and verify with his watchmaker how the indices were applied on the dial and if they are easily removable, if so he needs:
- crown 10 o’clock (foundable)
- lollipop hand (I think very hard to find)
- indice for 11 o’clock (should be quite easy, are the same indices of lot of other models)
- hand for hour chrono (easy)

If his watchmaker will say that the dial hopelessly compromised he will send back the watch and get back his money.
It’s a project that I would try make.
I don’t think A3736 only head is foundable in good conditions for 5k

 

It is so calculated risk, because I paid almost 3k euro

 

Cheap for sure, but I can't say it's a nice watch, honestly.

 

Good luck to the OP with the project, I like these Zenith's a lot and I think the price paid is certainly fair for the condition.

Having said that when I buy a project at least two of the four key elements ( dial, hands/bezel, case, movement ) must be in excellent shape for me to go ahead. With this one I'd be worried that after much time, energy and €'s the watch will have been improved but not quite to the show stopper level that I'd prefer after all the effort put in.