Zeno Explorer (ZEX), another review
The Zeno Explorer ETA, the ZEX as it is known in the WIS community, is considered by many on TZ-UK to be one of the watches to have alongside others, given its style and price level. For quite a few it supposedly is a typical 'quality beater'. And they are probably right.
I ordered this one on Friday, 31 August, from Eddie. At the end of the day, so he would ship it on Monday morning. It arrived on Tuesday, my birthday.
So out with the Laguiole knife and into attack mode to slash the UPS bag and then a fair amount of armoured tape before I could open the box. Y'all know the Platts/Timefactors drill by know... ;-).
Out came the little Zeno-Watch Basel travel case, not a zippered pouch one but a rounded box-like case, containing the watch, its Zeno guarantee card plus Eddie's business card and a polishing cloth. The cardboard box also contained the usual Timefactors envelope with instruction sheet and invoice.
I tried on the watch, and found that I could size the bracelet fairly well without removing a link. However, I am not into polished bracelets. It makes the watch look too bling and thus, paradoxically, cheaper.
So off came the bracelet, and on went a brand new 20 mm wide RAF 2-ring Bond NATO. I am not the first one here to note that this is the ultimate strap for the ZEX.
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Just for the heck of it, the next morning I swapped straps again and put in on a green NATO to go with my kaki green workpants. It looks quite good on green, actually; even my Significant Other thinks so. I have also tried it on a black leather one-piece strap with a wrist-cuff style backing pad, similar to a Bund, and it looks great on that, too. It simply looks good on any NATO-style strap.
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On day 3 I put it on a tan leather NATO, which is not bad either. Like I said above, anything but the bracelet, but that of course is a matter of taste.
The ZEX is a no-nonsense steel watch. Large, thick lugs, acrylic crystal. The crown is precise when setting, with virtually no play in the hands. Handwinding feels a bit 'dry', but it works. Given its moderate waterresistance rating it could have had just a non-screwed crown (with a double seal), which would have avoided the typical problem of a worn thread on the crown tube. When one sets or winds the watch, it takes a bit of patience to 'find' the crown thread while pressing in the crown against the spring action of the coupling/decoupling mechanism. Once it bites, it screws snugly against the case in about two full turns.
Accuracy vs. precision
This example is consistently slow: it loses just over half a minute per day, which is nothing to worry about but will need to be corrected by a watchmaker some day. It is very consistent, no matter its position or my activities, so it is quite precise even if it could be a bit more accurate. The only real reason to have it regulated is to minimize wear on the crown thread (see above). With a non-screwed crown I would not mind at all synchronizing it every other day or so. Of course as a matter of principle, it would be better if an automatic with a screwed crown would be at least modestly regulated to be a little fast, say 10-15 sec/day, so setting could be reduced to once a week (being half a minute ahead won't make you miss appointments) and done by hacking it. The ETA movement is precise enough to allow that without a lot of trouble. Maybe Zeno wanted to cut costs a bit by not letting its watchmakers spend time regulating, and thus lifted the 'super precision' print from the dial?
Dial
Mine is the newest model which just says 'Zeno Watch Basel' in the upper half of the dial in small type and light grey printing, and nothing else. When all hands are in the upper quadrant, the empty dial is a bit of a black hole at first - but it has really grown on me. More text just would serve to enhance a 'fake Rolex' effect, as Rolexes tend to splash their 'superlative chronometer/officially certified' marketing blurb on the dial. Little or no text: no mistake, this one may look similar, but it is not a Rolex and not pretending to be one either.
The Explorer-style dial is very legible and utilitarian. Lume could have been a bit better, especially on the hands. The large ball on the hour hand is just recognizable in the dark after five or six hours, so you get a rough idea of the time, but the minute hand is almost impossible to see. As soon as dawn arrives, the gleaming metal of the hands will allow you to see them clearly in a semi-dark room though.
Case
The case is brushed on top, but the sides and the bezel are highly polished, which I suppose matches the classic Rolex Explorer look. The polished bezel gets smudged by fingerprints and dirt very easily, so I guess even Rolex might have done a better job by brushing it. The lugs are sharply machined; they will scrape off the edge of a nail with ease and you might use them as in impromptu pencil sharpener...
I love the case shape and the fact that it has 20 mm lugs instead of the 18 mm that is the usual size for this case diameter. The springbars leave generous space to pass through a thick one-piece or military style strap; it is the only watch in my modest collection that accepts a Rhino with room to spare.
With its 45 mm lug to lug the ZEX wears perfectly well on my 18 cm/7.25 inch wrist. I never understand how people can wear watches with a case size of 45 mm or more, to which a fair amount of lug length must be added. These must snag in everything and bang into every door, unless you are Hulk Hogan.
Conclusion
Generally, this is a very nice watch for anyone wanting that vintage Explorer look in an affordable watch that is not an outright copy but an honest homage. As said, it might have been technically better with a twin-sealed non-screwed scrown to allow frequent setting without wear, but that is a matter of personal opinion.
After two weeks the ZEX has grown on me, and I think it will continue to get a lot of wrist time.
