It’s finally happening.

The watch community, and even mainstream pop culture, are waking up to more avant-garde, esoteric timepieces. Gone are the days where everyone is clamoring for a stainless steel sports watch. It’s the irregular case shapes, funky dial designs, and exotic materials that are starting to take up space in the fore-brain.

It’s pieces like the Cartier Crash, Audemars Piguet Ref 1216-5157, and even the Accutron ‘Floppy Football’ that seemingly have inspired successful contemporary releases in the Mirage from Berneron, A1 from Anoma, and the B/1 from Toledano & Chan.

The piece we have here, a Zenith Reference A6621, absolutely belongs in that conversation!

The Zenith A6621 was introduced in 1965 to celebrate the manufacture’s 100 year anniversary and ceased production in 1969. Housed in a peculiar, ‘UFO’ case, this piece featured a rather wide beveled bezel with an integrated date magnifier at 6 o’clock. The combination of these features resulted in a dial silhouette that resembles a keyhole, hence the nickname and its popularity amongst vintage watch enthusiasts.

This piece features a 36mm stainless steel case with an acrylic crystal, integrated signed crown, and straight lugs. The dial features a two-tone silver dial that has developed a warm shade of cream patina. Additionally, the dial features a ‘dot’ minute track, a matching ‘black line’ handset, Zenith’s ‘Guiding Star’ logo.

Outfitted on a funky, Tropical-style, stainless steel cuff bracelet with an unsigned hook and lock clasp, this piece features the manufacture’s self-winding Calibre 2542 movement.

Zenith didn’t just make iconic chronographs. They also produced heavily designed pieces with a certain level of charm and visual weight, such as this Zenith Keyhole!