Zenith Heritage Cronometro Tipo CP 2 Re-Edition

Friends, its time to lift the veil from one of the most successful new watch Zenith has presented this year (and that many, many have been looking forward to): a fantastic re-edition of the landmark chronograph in Zenith's stable: Welcome the Zenith Heritage Cronometro Tipo CP 2 :



Zenith really exerted all its cruelty by watering the mouths of a selected few by offering glimpses at this model at Basel (yours truly included  ), but at the same time putting a strict embargo on it until October. Finally, that is lifted!

The Tipo CP 2 is a 43mm stainless steel watch with a miliatry black dial, rotating bezel and a solid case back. It is attractive, thanks to a decidedly clean dial with only the permanent seconds, minute counters and an 'automatic' enscription at 6 o'clock. Combined with the matte calf leather (could it be Barennia - I need to confirm this), it is ultimately attractive:

The famous historical ancestor of this watch is the legendary Zenith A. Cairelli - Tipo CP-2 , watch, a military chronograph commissioned by the Italian Army through the Italian dealership A. Cairelli in Rome. 'CP' stands for cronometro di polso (wrist chronometer), and indeed were these watches not only chronographs, but also certified chronometers.

Below I'd like to share a few pics of a particularly nice example by PuristS mstanga:





Between 1965 and 1970, 2500 of these watches were delivered to Cairelli, but not all of them actually saw military use, as the commissioning A.M.I. (Aviazione Militare Italiana) stopped funding.

Only those with an 'A.M.I.' engraving and a military service number (M.M. ('Matricola Militare'); followed by a 6-digit inventory number) were actually assigned to military use. There should be about 2000 of the 2500-piece total production run.



Now with the re-edition (or hommage if you like) Zenith did an excellent work in the details. First, the diameter of 43mm is exactly identical, and to a large extent this applies to most of the various details.



First, note the fonts on the dial and the bezel - very true to the Cairelli, even down to differences between those indicating the time and those on the subdials. Also pay attention to the '5' and how perfectly it is reproduced.



The dial plate itself is flat, again faithful, with just slightly sunk subdials. If there is one minor difference then this is the slightly larger diameter of the counters compared to the Cairelli; and a larger one, being the 'A. Cairelli Roma' inscription replaced by an 'Automatic' (I was told that there was a legal reason for this).



A really wonderful feature as well, is the hands, also exactly like the original, even down to the rounded triangular tip of the central seconds hand:



It is the same for the case, with the notched bezel ring (facilitating grip), the fluted case band...





... as well as the shape of the pushers and the oversized crown:



The latter is adorned with the circled Zenith logo, which constitutes a departure from the original (which had a circled 4-spoke propeller logo, but this might be proprietary to the A.M.I. and thus was precluded from reproduction.



Also the shape of the lugs is faithfully preserved.

The A. Cairelli - Tipo CP-2 of course came as a manual wind chronograph (being created a few years prior to the El Primero), driven by the Zenith movement 146 DP (based upon Martel 749), while the new Tipo CP 2 is powered by an El Primero automatic chrono movement. So this is one major difference, which is not visible to the owner since the watch - like its ancestor - comes with a solid caseback.



But now comes the best part: wrist-time:





So overall, I am sure this is a watch which instantly will find many, many admirers. Its a reminder of Zenith's great history not only for chronometric excellence, but also for its military-approved tool watches. Judging from the many discussions on the original A. Cairelli watch I an confident that Zenith really delivered an authentic hommage ot this landmark piece.

With its military, utilitarian no-nonsense design and its strong character, I foresee lots of wristshots of the Heritage Cronometro Tipo CP 2 already, and particularly look forward for those who do the 'strap-dance' - your creativity will certainly be tickled with this watch!



One piece of information as a warning: there are only 1000 specimen to be produced... Price: well below €10.000 (I'll confirm the exact price later).
Cheers,
Magnus

P.S.: Guys: for the shots I sneaked the watch from the wrist of the fiancé of the Zenith CEO Austria & CEE. As such, it is full of 'life', if I may phrase it this watch. Otherwise, the watch was out of bounds for any media representative..., thus please excuse the dust. I think the fact that I have own life images in the first place puts you hopefully in a mood of unconditional forgiveness!