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haga888
·So I bought this A3736 from a "well-known" Italian dealer at the beginning of last year. It had incorrect subdial hands and main crown on it but other than that everything about it looked good. I've never seen one in this condition before and assumed it was probably put together from NOS parts that I know he has access to. Fast-forward to today and I had sold the watch to a local buyer to free up some cash for another project. The buyer noticed something that I had never noticed. The dial is missing the "Swiss T" at the bottom. When he mentioned it I went back to pictures and assumed it was probably a service inner bezel and was covering it. On closer inspection it does appear to be completely missing. He spoke with a few of his Zenith collector friends and their conclusion was that it was a fake dial made in Italy. Needless to say, I offered a full refund and took the watch back. I'd rather eat the watch than ruin my reputation for a few $k.
I contacted the dealer I bought it from and (his English is broken but this is what I'm interpreting) he claims it is original Zenith parts. Possibly service parts but original Zenith nonetheless. He's offered a full refund in any event. I have doubts that this is a fake dial. Service possibly, but outright fake? It makes no sense. I've taken some macro shots (in poor lighting sorry). The fonts look correct to me. The subdials are pie-pan. The dial is painted in a sunburst pattern and is bright which I'd assume is not easy for an amateur to do. Applied markers and Zenith star all look correct. The minute and second hashes look good to me. The lume is all tritium and even. I've noticed the inner bezel looks different than others I've seen on the net. The hour markers on the bezel are lumed (looks like original lume) which I don't see on net pictures. Basically, if this is a fake dial, there are a lot of OEM's that should be hiring them to make all of their dials. Also, if someone has tooled something to make a dial this convincing for this relatively uncommon watch, I'd assume I'd see these dials all over the place. I've never seen one like it. Who would go through this trouble to make this dial and only put it on one watch to make a few hundred Euros? You still had to find a relatively uncommon watch with such a bad dial that you couldn't sell it as is to put it on. And I don't think I paid a king's ransom for it either (which is probably why he's more than willing to refund it).
Anyways, I'm sending it off to Zenith today to authenticate it one way or the other. But there are experts on here that have way more knowledge than I do about these things so I thought I'd throw it up here to get some opinions. If it's a bad watch, I'll keep it. I still think it is gorgeous. Even if it's a good watch, I think I'm still keeping it after all this trouble. Let me know what you think. Thanks.
I contacted the dealer I bought it from and (his English is broken but this is what I'm interpreting) he claims it is original Zenith parts. Possibly service parts but original Zenith nonetheless. He's offered a full refund in any event. I have doubts that this is a fake dial. Service possibly, but outright fake? It makes no sense. I've taken some macro shots (in poor lighting sorry). The fonts look correct to me. The subdials are pie-pan. The dial is painted in a sunburst pattern and is bright which I'd assume is not easy for an amateur to do. Applied markers and Zenith star all look correct. The minute and second hashes look good to me. The lume is all tritium and even. I've noticed the inner bezel looks different than others I've seen on the net. The hour markers on the bezel are lumed (looks like original lume) which I don't see on net pictures. Basically, if this is a fake dial, there are a lot of OEM's that should be hiring them to make all of their dials. Also, if someone has tooled something to make a dial this convincing for this relatively uncommon watch, I'd assume I'd see these dials all over the place. I've never seen one like it. Who would go through this trouble to make this dial and only put it on one watch to make a few hundred Euros? You still had to find a relatively uncommon watch with such a bad dial that you couldn't sell it as is to put it on. And I don't think I paid a king's ransom for it either (which is probably why he's more than willing to refund it).
Anyways, I'm sending it off to Zenith today to authenticate it one way or the other. But there are experts on here that have way more knowledge than I do about these things so I thought I'd throw it up here to get some opinions. If it's a bad watch, I'll keep it. I still think it is gorgeous. Even if it's a good watch, I think I'm still keeping it after all this trouble. Let me know what you think. Thanks.
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