With this little 1970s Zenith Defy, I was a victim of a GTG. GTGs…Get-ToGethers of like-minded watch collectors are great fun but also very dangerous. There are dangers that are simply in the nature of GTGs that even include personal injury or loss of memory, but I’m talking here about the dangers of seeing and trying other collectors watches and the impact it could have on yourself.
The Zenith Defy is a 1970s Diver watch with an unusual case shape and not exactly hard to find, so when I saw a very nice version of a friend, I thought I should give it a try. In general, I really like Zenith as a brand especially their vintage watches. And compared with some of those El Primero Chronographs or the Chronometers with Cal. 135, that little Zenith Defy has a low hurdle to get one. So I had to hunt one of course.
After some searching, I decided on the grey smokey dial version. When it arrived, I was quite excited as it was my first vintage Zenith. The quality of the Zenith automatic movements from that time are a step above the GP Gyromatics, so I was very pleased with the performance of the watch. However, after wearing it on and off for a while, I had to admit, that I very much prefer vintage Girard-Perregaux’s, esp. when it comes to Diver watches.
So long story short, I parted again with the Zenith Defy and let someone else enjoy it more than I did. I do find myself once in a while browsing vintage Zeniths but I haven’t pulled the trigger again since then.
With this little 1970s Zenith Defy, I was a victim of a GTG. GTGs…Get-ToGethers of like-minded watch collectors are great fun but also very dangerous. There are dangers that are simply in the nature of GTGs that even include personal injury or loss of memory, but I’m talking here about the dangers of seeing and trying other collectors watches and the impact it could have on yourself.
The Zenith Defy is a 1970s Diver watch with an unusual case shape and not exactly hard to find, so when I saw a very nice version of a friend, I thought I should give it a try. In general, I really like Zenith as a brand especially their vintage watches. And compared with some of those El Primero Chronographs or the Chronometers with Cal. 135, that little Zenith Defy has a low hurdle to get one. So I had to hunt one of course.
After some searching, I decided on the grey smokey dial version. When it arrived, I was quite excited as it was my first vintage Zenith. The quality of the Zenith automatic movements from that time are a step above the GP Gyromatics, so I was very pleased with the performance of the watch. However, after wearing it on and off for a while, I had to admit, that I very much prefer vintage Girard-Perregaux’s, esp. when it comes to Diver watches.
So long story short, I parted again with the Zenith Defy and let someone else enjoy it more than I did. I do find myself once in a while browsing vintage Zeniths but I haven’t pulled the trigger again since then.
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