Zenith

Digging Deeper on a Zenith #2

 

Team,

First of all, sorry for the delay. I had a very hard time trying to crack open the case of our today's subject.

I want to say a warm thank you to my watchmaker, that seems to have much stronger hands.

Here is the subject for our "digging", the Zenith A3634.

It's a mid 70's watch (1970's) and, for sure, this decade was not a great epoch for the Swiss watch industry and, in particular to Zenith.

It's a combination of diver and world time watch.

The first time that I took pictures of this watch, I had some concerns. Could be a "franken"? Could be a plain fake?

By chance our Zenith expert, LouS, was able to show this small picture of an old Zenith catalog and, here is our diver+world timer.

My initial concerns were based on this picture of page 184 of the Rössler Zenith "bible". Notice that the bezel is the only difference.

The Rössler book fails to mention the watch movement. I was curious to see and, after we could open the case, it shows clearly that the movement is the 2552PC

The Zenith 2552PC movement family is composed by:

2552C: manual wind, central seconds, date (non quick set)
2552P: automatic, central seconds
2552PC: automatic, central seconds, date (non quick set)

The letter "P", from French "plat" designates "flat" main spring. "C", is for calendar.

The Zenith A3634, despite the fact that Rössler dates a similar model to 1975, seems to be made early, like end of 60's.

Very cool, IMHO, case that carries the classic Zenith "angular" lugs.

Th world time bezel, rotates and this particular specimen has a nice patina.

Here is the star case back. Did I stated that this watch seems to look like a NOS?

Signed, Zenith star, nice sized crown.

The bracelet, with a diver extension, makes a nice set with a perfect blending with the angular shaped case.

Now, let's see it on my wrist.

Case size is around 38mm. Very nice for my meager wrist.

Another angle for the Zenith A3634.

I'm feeling sad to return this watch to the owner. I would love to have it on my small set.

Thanks for seeing.

Cheers,

Nilo

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