- Posts
- 17
- Likes
- 34
ucsbgsmith
·Hello there and thanks in advance your expertise.
Well, here's my sort of fun issue: I have recently purchased a vintage Zenith wristwatch. It's a rectangular Zenith with an 18k white gold hinged case and a very nice manual movement. I think it's a real looker, sort of like those early Tiffany Pateks but obviously it has some issues. Most glaringly, the dial is missing a "1" and more importantly a white gold minute hand. I would like to have these issues fixed by someone with the expertise to find or fabricate these components and just give the watch the attention I think it deserves.
So, after buying the watch I contacted Zenith's heritage department because I suspected the watch was something special. The gentleman from Zenith was enthusiastic about the watch but unfortunately their heritage department does not do restorations for the general public yet. The gentleman, Joel, was able to verify it's authenticity and tell me the watch was manufactured in 1929. I guess I should have asked him about where I should have the watch restored but I didn't annoy the guy after he'd been so nice.
After failing to convince Zenith to restore the watch I started looking for a donor watch. This turned out to be extremely difficult. The movement in this watch is extremely rare, the case is super rare etc. I only found one Zenith watch that was even close and it was 5k. I figured I could probably harvest a breguet numeral from a steel watch but a proper white gold leaf hand is tough to find. Really, I'm not qualified to pursue this myself and my regular watch mechanic is not really interested in a project like this. I live in the Los Angeles area and there's a few vintage specialists around but Zenith is odd and I would like some input from some Zenith aficionados.
Where should I have the watch restored?
Should I focus on collecting the components I need myself or will a restorer have them?
The watch runs but will need a service. Ideally, after the watch is restored should I have it serviced at Zenith?
Well, here's my sort of fun issue: I have recently purchased a vintage Zenith wristwatch. It's a rectangular Zenith with an 18k white gold hinged case and a very nice manual movement. I think it's a real looker, sort of like those early Tiffany Pateks but obviously it has some issues. Most glaringly, the dial is missing a "1" and more importantly a white gold minute hand. I would like to have these issues fixed by someone with the expertise to find or fabricate these components and just give the watch the attention I think it deserves.
So, after buying the watch I contacted Zenith's heritage department because I suspected the watch was something special. The gentleman from Zenith was enthusiastic about the watch but unfortunately their heritage department does not do restorations for the general public yet. The gentleman, Joel, was able to verify it's authenticity and tell me the watch was manufactured in 1929. I guess I should have asked him about where I should have the watch restored but I didn't annoy the guy after he'd been so nice.
After failing to convince Zenith to restore the watch I started looking for a donor watch. This turned out to be extremely difficult. The movement in this watch is extremely rare, the case is super rare etc. I only found one Zenith watch that was even close and it was 5k. I figured I could probably harvest a breguet numeral from a steel watch but a proper white gold leaf hand is tough to find. Really, I'm not qualified to pursue this myself and my regular watch mechanic is not really interested in a project like this. I live in the Los Angeles area and there's a few vintage specialists around but Zenith is odd and I would like some input from some Zenith aficionados.
Where should I have the watch restored?
Should I focus on collecting the components I need myself or will a restorer have them?
The watch runs but will need a service. Ideally, after the watch is restored should I have it serviced at Zenith?
