{"product_id":"zenith-silver-split-seconds-chronograph-besancon-observatory-chronometer-c-1922","title":"Split-Seconds Chronograph, First Class at Besançon, 1922","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA silver split-seconds chronograph by Zenith, timed and certified as a First-Class chronometer at the Besançon Observatory in 1922. It arrives with its own documented observatory record: the paperwork that proves exactly what it is.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA split-seconds chronograph in solid silver by Zenith, made around 1921 and sent, as the best watches of its day were, to be judged. The movement was deposited at the Besançon Observatory in July 1922, rated through the French national trials, and awarded a First-Class bulletin; the archive extract confirming the result, obtained from Besançon itself, accompanies the watch.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe complication is the rattrapante: two slender blued steel chronograph hands stacked at the centre, one stopping at a press to take a split while the other runs on, then flying back to rejoin it. A thirty-minute register sits at twelve, running seconds at six, and a fifths-of-a-second scale rings the dial. Everything works: the chronograph starts, stops and resets cleanly, and the split hand divides and catches as it was regulated to do a century ago.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe dial is white enamel, clean and bright, signed Zénith in the accented form of the period, its bold Breguet-form numerals under rose gold leaf hands, the one warm note on an instrument face. The case is solid silver, 51.4mm, with an engine-turned barleycorn back and a plain central cartouche that no owner ever engraved. The silver marks are softened by age and present throughout.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA watch sent to an observatory was built above ordinary production and adjusted by a named specialist over weeks of testing; what distinguishes this one is that the proof came home with it, and stayed. It winds, sets and runs correctly, exactly as its bulletin once certified.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe marks, the movement and the condition are set out piece by piece in the drawers below; the Besançon result and archive extract are set out in The Record.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Zenith","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54371088957779,"sku":"PW-0102","price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/zenith-silver-pocket-watch-1_Hero.jpg?v=1785250355","url":"https:\/\/estatecollection.nl\/products\/zenith-silver-split-seconds-chronograph-besancon-observatory-chronometer-c-1922","provider":"The Estate Collection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}