Collectors love oddities. A historically important period or an unusual design trait perhaps, all of which adds to the uniqueness of collecting vintage. Through the context in which it was produced, the Zenith A279 in my opinion, is such an oddity.
This watch was produced in the late 60s, a time period where watch manufacturers were racing to create the first automatic chronograph movement. As we know now, Zenith created the El Primero movement and a consortium consisting of Heuer, Buren, Breitling and Dubois-Depraz created the Calibre 11. This was seen to be the future and the Zenith A279, with its manually wound Cal. 146 DP was seen largely as an afterthought. Perhaps Zenith were even casing already made manually wound moments just to sell them off.
I say this because of the unusual components of the watch. Cased in what is a very standard stainless steel chronograph case of that era, there is a contradiction between that and the high-quality column wheel movement inside it. The watch could easily be mistaken to be a Valjoux 77 or Landeron 248.
In regards to the dial, there is a lot of depth to it. There is a contrast between the bright silver sunburst dial and the beautiful matte grainy subdials. Though same in colour, they reflect light differently, creating a nice two-tone effect. Combine this with the unusual wide-boy style lume hour markers, it is kind of a neither here nor there piece, exactly the kind of oddity that I love.