Zenith

Absolutely on the money regarding the primacy . . .

 

. . . of performance back when the El Primero was released, Magnus.  As you may recall, the New Vintage 1969 . . .

[watch credit: Dr No / image credit: Attila Aszodi]

. . . was the sports watch in my collection for a few years, a decision guided by respect for the movement and an appreciation for the aesthetics.  The melding of the iconic* A386 dial and Zenith's characteristic shaped case was overwhelmingly attractive to my eyes.  It immediately attracted my attention upon release in '09, and after much deliberation and hours of in-store assessment, made its way into my collection.

The first evening of wear was, however, an eye-opening experience.  I'd previously only seen it during daylight hours, in a well lit dealership.  Walking out of my friend's restaurant onto the street, I gazed . . . and was unable to tell the time.  It was 6-ish, just getting dark, and the steel grey hour hand had been figuratively swallowed by the black chrono hours sub-dial.  It was at that moment I realized why the original A386 had been fitted with white hands: less pleasing to the eye, but more legible. 

An image of Nilo's specimen . . .

. . . to illustrate my point. 

Kudos to the designers at Zenith for endowing the current model with hands legible enough to stand out against the darker subdials.

Art

* iconic may be an overused word, but deserved in this context.