Messages: 1044 Location: Pennsylvania
Registered: November 2006
Still smitten after all these years...
Mon, 28 March 2016 22:52
OK, it's only been about 7 years with this one, but my love for it seems to grow more and more as time passes:
I suppose the styling isn't the most classic of Zenith's offerings, but I just love this watch. The dial is amazing, with so many intricate details and yet so well-balanced IMO, with the Open section, transparent Grande Date section, and power reserve, with different sized markers to accommodate the different features. The openness and transparency satisfies my enjoyment of skeletonization, but the watch interestingly has these open features while also having a lot of dial. The dial is silver but varied, with a contrasting metallic ring where the markers are placed. The center section of the dial has lines projecting out from the center point to the hour markers...just another subtle but interesting detail...and some minimal guilloche rings separating the sections. The hands are perfection IMO, with an interesting mix of brushed and polished sections for a pinwheel effect, and a beautifully-colored contrasting cutout hand for the power reserve. The tri-spoke running seconds hand at 9 o'clock might be a little over the top and certainly doesn't make it easy to accurately read the seconds, but is that really the point? That hand would probably look unbalanced if it was just a single spoke. Sure the overall "smiling" dial might turn some people off...but I think it just adds subconsciously (and consciously) to the pleasurable experience of viewing the dial, making me smile when I look at it.
Even with all these details the dial isn't overly busy, for my tastes anyway. It seems that so much thought and artistry went into this one, and I really appreciate it more and more as time goes by.
If I was forced to be critical of something, it might be that while the movement is beautiful, the rotor is a bit big and the writing on it is somewhat tough to read...I think this is something Zenith has certainly improved upon in other models:
But overall I really love this keeper and thought I'd share the love! ;)
- Phaedrus29