March 19, 2024

Though it lacks unnecessary composing or a date complication, the tachymeter remained, as well as the distinctive 3/6/9 lines on the minute sub-dial. Those were, in the end of the day, counterproductive to the task of simplification, but without them, the opinion would shed almost any connection to the A273. Pursuing simplicity isalso, in our view, a fantastic thing, but left unchecked it would necessarily lead to some uselessly sterile dial. It has to be balanced along with other design goals.The dial itself needed to be equally understated yet have a charming, dynamic character that prevents it from ever becoming boring. The very best way to achieve that, we’ve found, is through a sunburst finish. A good sunburst finish, like this one, nearly disappears in a few light, seeming flat and non reflective, yet at other lighting, generally more direct, it comes alive with vibrant, brighter colours. In these pictures, using a white light box and absolutely even lighting, the dial comes off almost like silver, but in the majority of situations, it’s a more considerable champagne, or as some have commented, cream.The three small lines around the minute sub-dial, pointing to 3, 6 and 9, have definitely piqued your curiosity. This was a feature found not only on the A273 but on a variety of vintage Zeniths, and though it may appear gaudy, it had a very pragmatic character. I’m told (I was not alive at the time to provide my own testimony) that these marked the intervals where long-distance phone calls improved in price. Thus, the chronograph complication might help its owner in the somewhat mundane job of lessening his telephone costs.The blued hands along with champagne dial match one another, each making the other more visible and vibrant. Typically, we’d use one color for a complication, such as all chronograph hands being gloomy and all others being silver, however in keeping with the A273, we picked for the 3 sub-dial hands and the seconds hand to become blued while the hour and minute hands are silver. It is not the most logical layout, but it’s a really pleasing chromatic symmetry for it. Breaking with convention, however, is the form of the hands. The original A273 used sportier stick hands for hours and minutes, but we believed that the leaf-shaped hands better satisfied the dressy character that we had been aiming for with the Timeless Chronomaster Heritage Chronometer. Conversely, we added a short counterbalance to the sub-dial hands since, being gloomy, they paired the similarly-shaped blued minutes hand, leading a level of consistency.

Fine cigars and luxury watches have co-habited in the lives of the rich for centuries, but it is 1966 that is remembered in a new Zenith El Primero timepiece that celebrates the creation – 50 years ago – of Habanos cigars by Cuban legend Cohiba.

“A Habano is a prestigious object that, just like a watch, embodies an entire tradition of historical production and know-how,” Zenith says.

The limited edition El Primero “Legend of Cohiba” houses the El Primero chronograph movement in a watch that adopts the colours of Cohiba’s Habanos.

The case-middle of the 42mm pink gold case is engraved with the year 1966. The small seconds at 9 o’clock reveals the profile of the aboriginal chief Taíno – the emblem of the brand Cohiba.

The dial displays the golden hues of a tobacco leaf and bears the signature Cohiba rings.