After several months of regular watch-wearing, I noticed I had hardly reached for the Zenith Rainbow Elite. Even though I love the rich orange-yellow color of the dial, super slim profile (especially for a dive watch!), in-house movement, and clean look of the bezel, the size of it was just out of my comfort zone once the honeymoon period was over. While it wasn’t wildly disproportionate, it gave me just enough pause to make me pick another watch when getting dressed.
Also, it was consistently running +10 sec/day, which is not a big deal to most people but annoys the bejeesus out of me because I know all it needs is a simple regulation. I was loathe to bring it to a watchmaker because it was new though. That’s what you get for going grey market.
I’ve passed it on to Rich but he hasn’t worn it yet. He’d better get in the habit soon because it’s too beautiful to sit in a box its whole life and I know there are plenty of folks out there who’d give this some wear.
This also means that sadly (or fortunately, really) the JLC Master Ultra Thin Moon 39 had to be knocked off my list of moonphase watches I wish to own someday. As thin as the Zenith was at 9mm case thickness, the 39mm dial was simply too big for my little wrist (5.5″), so the similarly proportioned JLC will definitely be a no-go.
I think the Oris Artelier Complication will be my next target. It’s the cheapest of the watches on my moonphase list and I really want a guilloche dial watch in my collection as well.
The Kenjo a block from our apartment has all the watch brands I want, but they’re only open when I’m at work in JC. This is a pretty clear message from the universe that I’m going to have to work (and save) a lot longer before I go buying these watches willy nilly.