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Why I bought a Zenith pocket watch that’s 106 years old Why I bought a Zenith pocket watch that’s 106 years old

Why I bought a Zenith pocket watch that’s 106 years old

Thor Svaboe

One of the few worldly possessions of Mahatma Gandhi was his beloved Zenith alarm pocket watch that the social visionary used to make sure he didn’t miss prayer times. Being reminded of this merely underscored the intrinsic value of my newly arrived, perfectly smooth and deeply unfashionable piece of stress relief. What happened was this: while perusing Chrono24 looking at Zenith vintage watches with the fun “lowest-price-first” filter, a century old 53mm pocket watch had me inexplicably smitten. While I love their modern Chronomaster Sport and exuberant DEFY Extreme, I was intrigued to delve into the brand’s past.

53mm Zenith

A perfectly proportioned, Ferrier-smooth, steel-cased Zenith pocket watch was for sale in pristine condition with an Italian dealer. The price was so low it took me all of five seconds to click and buy it. There are plenty more available, too.

For some reason they all remind me of the old, strong guard dog that sits unadopted at the rescue centre, too proud to beg, while yelping puppies and lap dogs are picked up within days. The Zenith was bought on a whim, and now I can’t keep my hands off its smooth case. It’s like a loaded, compressed piece of history a century old, a talisman perhaps?

My soft stress ball remains un-squeezed, as even a quick fondle of this 115g pebble installs a sense of meditative calm. A couple of turns of the large onion crown will instantly turn back time to the days of proud craftsmanship, and a feeling of having time on your hands, rather than chasing you like a demon, never resting, never relenting.

The production year was confirmed by Zenith (grazie, Vittoria) in Le Locle leafing through their heritage archives as the year 1915.  The 19’’ Zenith lepine caliber within is a large, simple piece of engineering, you’ll find it under the double protection of case-back and a polished dust cover.

With an evocative ‘GRAND PRIX PARIS 1900’, it reminds us of the honours awarded to Zenith at the 1900 Paris World’s Fair. This is a prize that would remain on the dust covers inside Zenith pocket watches well in the sixties. Pry it open and you’re met by large mainplates covering a sturdy movement, the typical turn of the century engraved balance cock, and a large balance wheel as its beating heart, with a life of unknown service history and an unbelievable +/- 30 or so seconds a day. The feeling of timeless quality is awe-inspiring.

But this is not about the telling of time, just as much as you don’t buy a $600,000 perpetual calendar to remember your appointments. This is about a feeling, and the fact that in our mad, obsessive and brand-addled times, craftsmanship is perhaps the new luxury.

Under a thick, domed acrylic crystal, the smooth white porcelain is smooth as Wedgewood china, and adorned with classic, pad-printed black numerals. The recognisable touch of a recessed small seconds register at 6 is a balanced part of the large dial, with a long hand close to touching the edge of the register by a hair’s breadth. Hours and minutes are shown with needle-thin feuille hands, dark in appearance with a twinkle of blue.

Hand-made and heated to a mysterious blue/black hue, they are swoopy and impossibly thin compared to the utilitarian sword hands of our sports watches. Not a single sharp edge of the 106-year old case, just squint, and you won’t even see the joins in the 3-part case, such are the razor-sharp tolerances. No watch today for less than $20,000 would have anywhere near the loving hand-finished details, polished through the waves of time itself, ever smoother with every pocket slip, and each passing generation.

I can almost feel each owner leaving a part of their soul in the smooth steel. Whether it be Francois checking the time of a 1920’s ambulance to take his wife to the hospital, nervous sweat from a shaking hand smudging the case back, or in the dusty vest pocket of a relieved general at the end of the Great War.

And do you know what? This feeling will cost you less than a mass-manufactured, ubiquitous fashion watch. A mere touch will give you the simple, smooth joy of understanding history, more than spending a week on watch forums, the library, or chatting on Clubhouse. Put on your coolest pair of jeans and pocket shots will take on a new meaning. And that small unused coin pocket inside the front pocket of your jeans remaining unused? Yes, it is a Watch Pocket, google it mate.

For the full story on Gandhi’s Zenith pocket watch, have a look at the Zenith home page here.