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UPDATED Zenith "Yugoslav" chronograph - 143-6 EP caliber
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Dre
·What a story! When I see a girl wearing oversize male watches, I'm like 🥰
This one is even better because it's vintage and military issued too! Congrats S, and dibs!
This one is even better because it's vintage and military issued too! Congrats S, and dibs!
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Syrte
·What a story! When I see a girl wearing oversize male watches, I'm like 🥰
This one is even better because it's vintage and military issued too! Congrats S, and dibs!
Thanks Andre, I too had been quite smitten at the thought of a mean oversize male watch 😀.
Dibs duly noted !
Mind you, this could have been used by the military -- but it is not issued.
It has no military markings -- a serial number does not an issued watch make!!!
Edited:
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sliceoftime_
·Congratulations buddy and great story! Mine says hi!
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minutenrohr
·Hi all,
just sold, but i kept the pics:
just sold, but i kept the pics:
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Syrte
·
Edited:
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Syrte
·
Thanks @kentlinardi, another really cool example-- and I'm proud to qualify as a "Buddy", I'll take it as a compliment (can a woman be a "Buddy"?)
Thanks again all for the sweet words!!
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sliceoftime_
·Of course you are, gender regardless!
Let me know if I can help!
In the meantime, enjoy the watch!
Sent from my SM-G9287C using Tapatalk
Let me know if I can help!
In the meantime, enjoy the watch!
Sent from my SM-G9287C using Tapatalk
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jfwoodman
·That's a sweet chocolate dial. 👍 Congrats
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Eric_navi
·Nice one. Beautiful watches.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Bluemartinifan
·Love a tropical 2 register dial!
Enjoy.
Enjoy.
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GBTRIUMPH
·Greetings everyone,
An unexpected purchase materialized today -- my first chronograph.
I looked at buying one for many months, but having just recently bought two long coveted watches I thought I was done for a while. Then this showed up (seller's pictures):
I had heard of those before, a pal who collects military chronographs even let me try one on.
They are said to have been used by the Yugoslav air force in the 1950s but little is known about them.
The seller was in Eastern Europe and the asking price was way above what I was prepared to pay.
One pusher is clearly off, and as usual no telling what a service might reveal.
It had what appeared to be a marvelous chocolate dial under a certain light.
But it looked more dull on other photos:
As it turned out the seller was not only willing to discuss the price, he was about to drive to Paris for the week end for the Euro championship. And he agreed to meet at a watchmaker's shop to have the movement looked at.
If the purchase went ahead, I planned to pay him inside the shop as I didn't want to walk around with cash in the street in the company of a stranger.
Lo and behold my safety planning was thrown off when the guy called, saying he and his friend were nearby but lost, and asking if I could come and get them. Darn. Two friends together? The watchmaker saved me and agreed to hold the cash while I went on my rescue mission.
So here I am in a fancy neighborhood of central Paris, linking up with two young guys wearing beer and heavy metal tee shirts, who had just driven 1400 kilometers for a football match, and shuttling them to a watch inspection.
The dial was exactly as I had hoped.
The original lume looked pretty good to the naked eye for an old presumed military watch.
The movement would need service but was deemed in good condition.
When I left the shop with my loot I was in a bit of a shock, not being used to such transactions.
Coffee and photos were part of the recovery.
A million thanks to @Northernman for his kind and generous guidance and encouragements.
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Syrte
·Dear gents,
So I took some time to report these findings, but here it is.
Zenith replied on July 4, 2016 to my request for info and an extract of archive, and provided information which as I understand has never been published or reported before:
1/ The "military style" black dial chronographs in question are part of a batch of 2000, ordered from Excelsior Park on January 20, 1954.
2/ Their case numbers range from 9104211 to 9106210, which comports with empirical observation.
Citation from the extract of archives:
"HISTORY - production order January 20, 1954
as part of a lot of 2000 such pieces ordered to Excelsior Park at that date".
In a private email, they further indicated:"our Registers however (sadly) do not further specify the client (...) meaning we couldn't confirm their purchase by the Yugoslav government at the time. What we know for sure is that your chronograph was part of a lot of 2000 such chronograph's ordered from Excelsior Park in 1954 (as described in your Extract of Archives)."
Zenith also sent me a picture of the archives register (below) recording the case numbers of the batch:
While there is no documentary evidence that those chronographs were delivered to the government of Yugoslavia, it has been observed empirically that a number of those chronographs, when found "in the wild", originate out of Belgrade or Zagreb.
We had discussions about this with the pal who introduced me to these chronographs ("Sticour" on several forums).
As he puts it, the discovery that they're a part of a batch of 2000 is significant -- because 2000 high grade Swiss chronographs could not have been sold privately in a communist regime like Tito's Yugoslavia.
There are other observations I will share later, once I've had a chance to mark and upload pics.
Best regards,
S
So I took some time to report these findings, but here it is.
Zenith replied on July 4, 2016 to my request for info and an extract of archive, and provided information which as I understand has never been published or reported before:
1/ The "military style" black dial chronographs in question are part of a batch of 2000, ordered from Excelsior Park on January 20, 1954.
2/ Their case numbers range from 9104211 to 9106210, which comports with empirical observation.
Citation from the extract of archives:
"HISTORY - production order January 20, 1954
as part of a lot of 2000 such pieces ordered to Excelsior Park at that date".
In a private email, they further indicated:"our Registers however (sadly) do not further specify the client (...) meaning we couldn't confirm their purchase by the Yugoslav government at the time. What we know for sure is that your chronograph was part of a lot of 2000 such chronograph's ordered from Excelsior Park in 1954 (as described in your Extract of Archives)."
Zenith also sent me a picture of the archives register (below) recording the case numbers of the batch:
While there is no documentary evidence that those chronographs were delivered to the government of Yugoslavia, it has been observed empirically that a number of those chronographs, when found "in the wild", originate out of Belgrade or Zagreb.
We had discussions about this with the pal who introduced me to these chronographs ("Sticour" on several forums).
As he puts it, the discovery that they're a part of a batch of 2000 is significant -- because 2000 high grade Swiss chronographs could not have been sold privately in a communist regime like Tito's Yugoslavia.
There are other observations I will share later, once I've had a chance to mark and upload pics.
Best regards,
S
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noelekal
··Home For Wayward WatchesYour Zenith chronograph is always nice to see and now it is more intriguing with the history you are sharing.
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LouS
··Mrs Nataf's Other SonMore info than I have seen an Extract contain before. Most interesting, thanks for pursuing this.
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LouS
··Mrs Nataf's Other SonYou just confirmed a whole slew of frankens, both ways, that is, numbers within range with various white dials, and numbers out of range with black lume dials.
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Rman
·You just confirmed a whole slew of frankens, both ways, that is, numbers within range with various white dials, and numbers out of range with black lume dials.
Zenith did confirm to me that they too had found reports of white dials issued to officers, but that was only through testimony from the owners of the watches, they have no paper trail for it. This is in addition to all that Syrte has reported above about the batch of 2000.
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LouS
··Mrs Nataf's Other SonZenith did confirm to me that they too had found reports of white dials issued to officers, but that was only through testimony from the owners of the watches, they have no paper trail for it. This is in addition to all that Syrte has reported above about the batch of 2000.
Perhaps, but I would be surprised if it was white dials with gold markers.
9104860
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