Collectible Watches

SPECS:
Manufacturer: Zenith SA
Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, date, chronograph, telemeter
Movement: Zenith El Primero 4002, automatic; diameter = 30 mm; height = 6.6 mm; 31 jewels; 36,000 vph; 50-plus-hour power reserve; gold-plated nickel balance; Nivarox hairspring; Kif shock absorber; bipartite index fine regulation; decorated with Geneva waves, circular graining and satin finishing; skeletonized rotor; blued, polished screws
Case: Stainless steel with sapphire crystal front and back; water resistant to 50 meters
Strap and clasp: Alligator and rubber strap with pronged buckle
Dimensions: Diameter = 41.86 mm, height = 12.26 mm, weight = 83.5 grams
Price: $6,400

PROS:
+ In-house caliber
+ Good rate results
+ Day/night legibility
+ Wearing comfort

CONS:
– No stop-seconds function
– Rate slightly in the “minus”
column
– Start/stop button operates stiffly

The Captain Chronograph, 42 mm in diameter, has a highly legible dial, earning praise from Lenhart, who also liked the watch’s wearing comfort. The simple but well-shaped stainless steel case fits well around the wrist, and the comfort is further enhanced by the high quality of the rubber-lined alligator strap.

Long, white wedges mark the hours. These team up with elegantly tapering white hands that contrast clearly with the black dial and the chronograph functions. The chronograph indicators are easy to read, as is the small-seconds subdial and the date at 6 o’clock. Lenhart said that the chronograph pusher at 2 o’clock was too stiff, but he liked the smoothly operating crown. This watch contains the well-known, in-house El Primero caliber, which doesn’t provide a stop-seconds function. This 5-hertz caliber runs in all situations with little deviation of rate, but with a slight loss of 0.2 second per day when fully wound and a loss of 1.1 seconds immediately after the test flight.

Zenith’s chronograph and its quickly oscillating balance can measure intervals to 1/10-second, so the dial is correspondingly calibrated around its edge. Zenith’s watch is also the only one in this review with a telemeter scale, which calculates distances by using the speed of sound.  With it, we determined, luckily at the end of our testing session, that there was an electrical storm 7 kilometers away: the chronograph measured 21 seconds between a lightning bolt and a thunderclap.