Visually, the Zenith Pilot Type 20 GMT 1903 watch is undeniably cool at first glance. It isn’t that perfectly white lume is ugly, but rather that it can be too perfect. Lume with a bit of color to it has a bit more personality. That isn’t always a good personality, but it adds something to what can otherwise look like a very sober design. Of course, the Type 20 GMT is never going to look like a boring watch, but with this “aged treatment” it has even more personality.
Look closer as the large Arabic numeral hour markers, and you’ll appreciate the detail that went into making the lume look aged and discolored. What is interesting is that each of the 1903 watches looks the same. Meaning that Zenith hand-designed each numeral individually and came up with some process of printing/applying each of the numerals on the dial. This is more interesting because the numerals are made of SuperLumiNova, and I’ve never quite seen this process done before.
Naysayers will say that despite the effort and complexity of the “curated vintage look,” the watch is not really old, and in some ways to have a “fake vintage” watch is sort of silly. I can appreciate that outlook and those people have an excellent point. This isn’t a real vintage watch and in addition to trying to look like something from the past, Zenith is trying in some almost playful way to make it appear as though each piece actually was from the past. It really just depends on the consumer. The people who like pre-worn jeans might love this product, and the people who like their new stuff to be crisp and perfect will simply not understand the point to the 1903 version of the Zenith Pilot Montre D’Aeronef Type 20 GMT watch.
Inside the watch is the in-house made Zenith caliber 693 automatic movement that operates at 4Hz. It has about 50 hours of power reserve, offers the time with subsidiary seconds dial, and a GMT function. The latter feature is easily adjusted in one hour positions with the massive pusher at 10’clock. Legibility and operation are very straight forward in this piece.
One thing that everyone can agree about the Zenith Pilot Montre d’Aeronef Type 20 GMT 1903 is that it has a lot of personality. Whether or not you enjoy that personality is a very individual decision. For what it is, the Pilot GMT 1903 watch is cool, but of course it is one of those watches that is fun to debate in regard to it “making sense.” Price for the ref. 96.2431.693/ 21.C740 Zenith Pilot Montre d’Aeronef Type 20 GMT 1903 is $8,900 and it is limited to 1,903 pieces. zenith-watches.com
