Zenith Cal.40 18ct Pink Gold 1960

The classic and beautifully styled slightly off-white dial carries applied pink gilt ‘baton’ hour indices, matched with original, unrestored gilt 1960s faceted ‘index’ hands. This is an impressive dial, partly due to its size, but also because of the contrast between the off-white of the dial and the pink gold of the case and pink gilt dial furnishings.

The dial carries the Zenith signature and star below the ’12’ at the top of the dial, a subsidiary seconds dial at the bottom above the ‘6’ and is marked ‘Swiss Made’ at the very bottom.

This dial is original to this watch and unrestored and untouched. It also remains in exceptionally good condition considering the age of the watch. Normally a dial of this age will have been subject to damage caused by a combination of sunlight, moisture and pollution, in the form of fading, staining, spotting, freckling, and pitting. The dial can also be scratched by careless removal of the hands and dial during servicing. Here however, this dial has almost none of this, with only one or two of the faintest marks which are hardly visible to the naked eye. Usually, we restore the dials of the watches we offer here. However in this instance, we decided that due to its exceptional condition and to retain its originality and charm for the many collectors who prefer this, we would leave it untouched. It also helps to offer a contrast with most of the other watches you see on our website, which have had their dials restored.

Please note, studio lights, professional-grade digital cameras, and macro lenses can be very unkind to an unrestored vintage watch dial. Also the dial here measures less than 1.25 inches across, so the image you’re seeing may be between 5 – 25 times larger than the watch itself. Therefore please keep in mind you are seeing many tiny flaws which cannot be seen, or will be very hard to see with the naked eye, even under close examination. Suffice to say, on the wrist, in natural light, this dial looks much better and carries a great deal more charm than the photographs portray.

The Movement

The Zenith Calibre 40 movement was a development of, and closely related to, the Zenith Cal.126-6 hand-wound movement. Zenith produced a total of 156,000 Calibre 40 movements between 1955-1960 and these remained in use from stock until the mid-1960s.  This calibre was fitted with an Incabloc shock protected balance and was highly successful for Zenith.

The example here is plated in beryllium-bronze and as can be seen, is in wonderful condition. The movement has just been fully overhauled and serviced by our watchmaker which means fully dismantling the watch and movement, ultrasonic cleaning of all parts, inspection to the critical surfaces under high magnification, with replacement as required with genuine new original parts, then careful reassembly and oiling, using all the correct lubricants to manufacturer’s specification before final testing and calibration. This watch is now running perfectly, having been calibrated and timed at +2 seconds per day! This timing is truly amazing for any watch of this age and has been confirmed on our electronic timegrapher. We therefore we have no hesitation in offering this watch with our 12 months warranty*.

The movement is signed ‘Zenith’, ‘Swiss Made’ and ‘17 Jewels’ and carries the Calibre number 40 and the movement reference number 5055158, dating the watch to 1960.

*Please note – our 12 months’ warranty is only applicable if the list price is paid.

Please note, as ever our standard advice applies: Vintage watches should be kept clean and dry at all times.