Zenith Stellina Owner Review : Refined, gorgeous and timeless

For my 29th birthday, my friends wanted to give me a joint birthday present. As always, I wanted a watch. In order to be surprised anyway, I selected 5/6 watches that caught my eye. I had noticed this little Zenith from the 60s, during one of those many moments when I was getting lost on Chrono24. At that time, my tastes for vintage were mixed with my desire to add a brand that I did not have in my collection and certainly with the news of the surge in the price of gold. My partner chose this watch from the list with the vote of my friends. So I received it on the evening of my birthday, I put it on my wrist and I immediately liked it. The next day, having sobered up, I realized that the strap on it was of very poor quality and that it was coming off where one of the two pumps went. I also notice that the minute hand is not original, it does not seem to be gold, it is a very coppery color. The minute hand is, as for it, in very bad condition, twisted and the black paint tracing the center is missing. Finally, the crown is also not original. I then undertake to look for the original hands. Not knowing anything about this area, I hang around on Google, going from site to site. I finally come across a parts site that sells a 2542 movement with dial (very damaged), original hands, original crown, but also the original box. The watch had to be disassembled to melt the gold and this had been done without taking care, hence the completely deformed dial. It was the jackpot for me. €110 and a few days later, I receive all that. With my low-end watchmaking kit from Aliexpress in hand, I managed to swap the hands. But when it came time to remove the original crown from the winding stem, crack! I broke the stem… With my research, I quickly found a new stem for my caliber. Once the watch was reassembled, all I needed was a nice strap. I chose a royal blue crocodile (in the tones of the original box) with a slightly burgundy brown interior from Camille Fournet. And my quest was over… A beautiful original gold buckle could complete the whole thing, but unfortunately the Zenith bracelets of that era were very thin and the price of the buckles is quite prohibitive. I've had this watch for a year and a half, perfect with a suit due to its elegance, its contained diameter of 35mm and its thinness < 9mm. Even if it doesn't spend much time on my wrist, because the Audemars has somewhat replaced it for special occasions; it still gives me so much pleasure. The research, the restoration steps and the feeling of pride felt at the success of all this, make this watch an important piece in my collection. I recommend not only this watch, but especially the process of buying a 60-year-old vintage.