Watch Review: Zenith Pilot Type 20 Tribute to Louis Blériot - handicraft aiming at the sky!
Le Locle-based watch manufacture Zenith honours the pioneer of aviation, Louis Blériot , with a dedicated collectors' piece, the Zenith Pilot Type 20 Tribute to Louis Blériot . This watch features a meteorite dial and the wonderful Cal. 5011 pocket watch ...
Another great review
And given only five specimen, a rare opportunity to get \'closer\' to the watch. Not sure if editing is still possible but you spell check seems to have occasionally removed the \'l\' from his name (Blériot). Thought he was a friend of Cartier\'s too, IIR...
Louis Cartier's aviator friend was Alberto Santos-Dumont
The only aviator associated with Cartier in the early 20th Century was Brasilian Alberto Santos-Dumontbut he started with dirigibles and main achievement was a circuit around Eiffel Tower. He won a prize for that feat. Later he tried aircraft but. Never m...
Actually, Santos-Dumont accompanied Blériot on a record flight...
with two passengers which was on 12 June 2009, making the world's first flight with two passengers, one of whom was Santos Dumont. They used Blériot's Type XII , a two seater with pilot and passengers seated under the wings, the passengers left and right ...
Rub a dub dub. Three men in a flying tub?
magnus, Thanks for this piece of history. I did not know that. A back seat driver...or actually in early aircraft...a front seat passenger. Where did they put the 3rd man? Regards, MTF
The third man...
" the passengers left and right to the pilot in a recto-verso configuration" Magnus
Recto-Verso?
Trainer aircraft and even operational aircraft like the A-6 Intruder have side-by-side seats but I never heard of recto-verso three-in-a row side-by-side. My Latin is not good so does that mean top and tail like sardines in a can? So the passengers are fa...
Very nice dial!
I really like the dial on this one, but I feel that maybe Zenith released a few too many different Limited Editions of this Pilot watch this year... Even if only 5 pieces of each LE, the exclusivity gets a bit worn out... Please don't get me wrong, the wa...
I like these kind of "tribute" watches...
There always and in many ways special. Thanks a lot for the exellent report, Magnus!
Beautiful but why can't it be worn? Too fragile?
I also hesitate to ask MSRP? Thanks.
It can be worn of course but it frankly is too large & heavy for daily use...
plus of course a sapphire case is not as rugged as steel or titanium The retail price is somewhere around 200,000 Swiss Francs. Best, Magnus
It's a tad big but the details of this dial and movement are very appealing
The colors combination, the numerals, printings and different elements of the dial work very nicely imho. The engraving is finding a very nice outfit on this watch too. Thanks for the article Magnus. Cheers.