Watchlords

Since it was founded, Zenith has celebrated the rise of aeronautics by creating measuring instruments specially designed for pilots. When the Frenchman Louis Blériot (1872-1936), on board his Blériot XI, completed the very first flight across the English Channel in 37 minutes on 25 July 1909, he was wearing a wrist watch made by the brand from Le Locle. This long love story between Zenith and aeroplanes is embodied in the Pilot collection, which has just been joined by the Pilot Type 20 Extra Special Chronograph Bronze Blue Dial model, introduced this year at Baselworld.

https://www.watches-news.com/zenith/pil ... blue-dial/

Nice but the movement is teeny tiny in that case and looks like one of those fashion watches that just have chrono dials and hands painted on.

Why Zenith persists with this big case range is beyond me. None of the original watched they made in the style were ever this size. None of them. I smell 2012 hipsters!

I do like the style of it but it also reminds me of those Ukrainian frankenwatches you find on Ebay.

The only actually palatable (to me, at least) watch from the current Pilot collection is the 40mm time-only one in steel. For whatever reason, they have discontinued the Big Date Special chrono, and introduced all the Ton-Up models and whatnot.

When I look back at 1950s Pilot models with the calibres 40 and 120 under the bonnet, and then I think of the current Pilot, I have an absolutely massive urge to get jaked and to hope for a booze-induced memory reset.

Mark1 wrote:I do like the style of it but it also reminds me of those Ukrainian frankenwatches you find on Ebay.

I agree.

MKTheVintageBloke wrote:The only actually palatable (to me, at least) watch from the current Pilot collection is the 40mm time-only one in steel.

Ah, but per the current zeitgeist that one (at only 40mm across 47mm lug to lug and 12.9mm thick, i.e. as big asa 5-digit Submariner) is for women, per Zenith. Generously-ankled Swiss women with chunkier limbs than me, presumably

Bleriot's watch was a bit small by today's standards. I bet he felt really ghey, crossing the Channel like that:

Pubbie wrote:

MKTheVintageBloke wrote:The only actually palatable (to me, at least) watch from the current Pilot collection is the 40mm time-only one in steel.

Ah, but per the current zeitgeist that one (at only 40mm across 47mm lug to lug and 12.9mm thick, i.e. as big asa 5-digit Submariner) is for women, per Zenith. Generously-ankled Swiss women with chunkier limbs than me, presumably

Bleriot's watch was a bit small by today's standards. I bet he felt really ghey, crossing the Channel like that:

I thought they quit calling it a ladies’ watch, but then again, I’ll need to check if they did.

Ghey or not, Bleriot couldn’t have worn this watch during his flight. Sure, he could have owned this particular watch, but unless he had a DeLorean-based time machine and jumped to 1928 to buy it, and then back in order to wear it on his flight across the Channel, no, he didn’t wear it then.
This dial font was not around until mid to late 1920s, and the watch itself is one of the countless ”1928 pattern” pilot watches. The marketing story around it was rather meticulously constructed- nowhere does Zenith imply, that this particular piece was worn by Bleriot on his flight across the Channel. The story got obviously disfigured by the blogs regurgitating the marketing claptrap, which blogs didn’t have a clue about how to paraphrase a story correctly.