The Story of the Zenith ‘A. Cairelli Roma’ CP-2
Zenith A. Cairelli Roma CP-2
Many perceive the Swiss to be the only ones with rich horological history, but the truth is that there’s many other countries with important heritage, one of them being Italy. Italy has made many significant contributions to horology, through Panerai and other brands. One of their lesser known contributions, however, comes from a Roman retailer known as 'A. Cairelli', who supplied the Italian military throughout the mid-20th century.
In the early 1960s, the Aeronautica Militare Italiana, through Cairelli, commissioned Zenith to build 2,500 watches for their pilots. They developed the Zenith Cronometro TIPO CP-2 (which stands for 'cronometro da polso tipo 2'), that had “A. Cairelli Roma” printed on the dial - as they were the distributors. However, not all of the watches made it to the cockpit. For an unknown reason the Aeronautica Militare decided to reduce the volume of their order, and A. Cairelli was left to sell the remaining pieces privately. In addition, some of the watches ended up being redistributed to other divisions of the Italian military, like the Marina Militare and the Pubblica Sicurezza.
The chronographs were eventually taken out of service in 1970, and the Zenith A. Cairelli Roma CP-2 has gone on to become quite popular amongst collectors, particularly the military denominated models. The originals signed “A.M.I.” for the Aeronautica Militare Italiana are especially revered, the Zenith CP-2 is also an excellent example of pre-El Primero Zenith chronographs.