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Zenith Launches New Pilot Cronometro Tipo CP-2 Flyback


Back in 2016, Zenith caught the eye of vintage-military-watch aficionados with its release of the Pilot Cronometro Tipo CP-2, an aviators’ chronograph that paid tribute to the now-legendary “Cairelli” watch the brand made for Italian Navy and Air Force pilots in the 1960s. This year, concurrently with the SIHH festivities in Geneva back in mid-January, Zenith followed it up with a new version of the watch, this one incorporating a flyback function and available in two different vintage-look cases.

Zenith Pilot Cronometro Tipo Cp-2 - Aged Steel
Zenith Pilot Cronometro Tipo Cp-2 in Aged Steel (Ref. 11.2240.405/21.C773)

Like both its mid-20th-Century ancestor and its 2016 predecessor, the Zenith Pilot Cronometro Tipo CP-2 Flyback has a case measuring 43 mm in diameter, a rotating aviator-style bezel, and a classical bicompax dial design (here with running seconds displayed on the 9 o’clock subdial and chronograph minutes, up to 30, tallied on the subdial at 3 o’clock). The dial — in either a bronze-grained or slate-gray-grained color — is guarded by a domed, nonreflective sapphire crystal and features applied Arabic hour numerals and rhodium-plated faceted hands, all treated with Super-LumiNova. The bezel and chronograph pushers, as they were on the steel-cased, black-dialed model released in 2016, were engineered to meet special easy-handling specifications mandated by the original watch’s military customers.

Zenith Pilot Cronometro Tipo Cp-2 - Bronze
Zenith Pilot Cronometro Tipo Cp-2 in Bronze (Ref. 29.2240.405/18.C801)

Aside from the case materials — bronze for the bronze-grained-dial edition and aged stainless steel for the gray-grained-dial version — the other significant difference from the most recent Tipo is the movement, the automatic El Primero 405B. Still a member of Zenith’s prestigious El Primero family of high-frequency chronograph calibers, this one adds a flyback function to the column-wheel-controlled stopwatch functions, allowing the wearer of this watch to stop timing an event, return the central chrono counter hand to zero, and instantly re-start the hand to begin timing again, with a single press of the top pusher. The movement, which offers a 50-hour power reserve and boasts a rotor decorated with côtes de Genève, is visible through another sapphire window in the caseback.

The bronze-cased version of the Pilot Cronometro Tipo CP-2 Flyback is mounted on a brown nubuck leather strap with a protective rubber lining; the aged steel model comes on a dark green nubvuck strap with the same lining. Both fasten to the wrist with a titanium pin buckles, and both are priced at $7,600.

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  1. Sylvio F. Bertoli

    These models are a beauty and the bronze one, for me, is a winner. I bought the limited edition of the Zenith Cronometro Tipo CP 2 in stailess steel, which, desing wise, is basically the same thing and I must say that from all the many Chronometers I have in my colleciton, this is perhaps easiest to check the time, These two are possibly as equal friendly as mine.

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  2. Mer Barac

    To my humble opinion , to many ” retro” watches by different firms. There is nothing like the original.

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    • Sylvio F. Bertoli

      I agree with you but I share with you my personal experience on the subjet. I realized that I could cure my frustration for not being able to find (at an affordable price) , certain models that I have always loved with a passion by buying re editions that were close to the originals. There are a some advantages, e.g.:- you can get them much cheaper, in in perfect order and with guarantee. If you are a collector you know how to take care of them to make sure that some day in the future they will also become vintage pieces and will bring joy to some other collectors. My J LC Tribute to Polaris 1968, + Tribute to Deep Sea and the Zenith Cronometro Tipo CP2 totally satisfied my esthetic senses and they have put my anxiety to find an original on a healthy slow motion mode. They give me a great pleasure to wear. And they have all somehow kept their value. They are all limited editions and it helped keeping their value, unless the Richemonts, LVHM’s , Swatch Groups start making new re editions every other year. Speaking of the devil, Richemont is in the market with a new Re Edition of the Tribute to Polaris 1968…

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