Unusual Zenith Divers: Part I

A couple of interesting Zenith divers hit my doorstep today... here is the first, and I believe less rare of the two, though rarissimo indeed:



The A3736 Black, the panda version of the lovely silver super compressor. It is unclear whether a reference number exists for this model, which Rössler calls "as reference A3736, but black lacquered face". Powered by the 17J 146 HP. Water resistant to 200m. Internal bezel rotated by crown at 10 o'clock.







It has a few issues. There are a million microfractures in the plexi (it will be interesting to see if replacements exist; preliminary research shows some guy in Turkey sold 4 of them about a year ago). The winding crown is a replacement, but, serendipity of serendipities, I purchased another unusual diver a while back with an incorrect crown that just happens to be 100% correct for this watch, so we'll do the old switcheroo.😀 There is a nearly imperceptible bend in the chrono sweep second hand, which I will probably have my watch man leave alone, because a snapped lollipop second hand might lead to the first recorded case of death by face-palm. The white re-lume is likely not correct, but not too offensive. And a GF ladder bracelet with the proper ZG end pieces is probably too much to hope for (that's right, I said ZG end pieces - Guide to GF thread updated). Overall, this watch illustrates the trade-offs I'll make for the truly introvabile. I've only seen photos of 4 or 5 different examples of this model on the web. Some day I'll write a paper on the extrapolation of watch production numbers from Google image search results, but for now I'll just say this one is mighty scarce.

Lookit all the doohickeys sticking out the side of the case! 😲

I like the idea! I'm a lily-gilder from way back. A turd-polisher, even. I'll find out. What color, do you reckon? Why do I have a feeling you're going to say "parchment"?

If that's wrong I don't wanna be right.

Sneak preview of "Unusual Zenith Divers, Part II":



You know the 1000m Zenith divers. You've seen the Big Blue, the Large Lemon, the Oversized Orange, the Black Behemoth. Now allow me to introduce... The White Whale.

Buying a watch from a private seller in Italy is a roulette game, no doubt, but I think this one paid off... much better in the metal than in the seller's photos... and I think the roulette wheel gives it the jazz it needs with that plain white dial. Therei s a similarly decorated 250m diver in one of the catalogs... your catalog, maybe. This is not the Italian one from last week... this is an Italian one from many weeks ago... it has meandered whale-like through the Poste Italiane, from Sardinia to Milan, back to Sardinia and back to Milan, then somehow through UPS in Germany and across the big blue to my door.

When we say we're hunting white whales we didn't mean literally. 😜

Just came across an A373x Black with hands in the color scheme LouS advises. This link also gives a production number of 400 for the panda-dialed variant:

A373x Black with a dab of color



I like it. Now for a chat with Herr Uhrmacher .

UPDATE:

The A373x was recently upgraded with a proper, rarissimo 20 mm GF ladder bracelet, from the first quarter of 1969...









...complete with the now irrelevant - yet essential - diver extension😀:

Nothing of the sort. Just some gentle thumb wrestling. 😀 They have been mauled a bit and filed down a little by a previous owner, so they don't exactly hug the case. Hard to tell whether they are even original equipment, what with the plier marks on the inner parts. So yes,

WTB: Gay Freres ZG end pieces (2)