There are slight differences between the main hour and minute hands on the Zenith A386 between the production batches, though they can be difficult to tell unless you are looking at the different versions at the same time.
The Mk 1 hands are of one type, and the Mk 2 and Mk 3 (including all production batches) are another.
There are two differences that set Mk 1 hands apart from Mk 2 and Mk 3:
1. In the Mk 1, the rectangular sections of lume in both hour and minute hands are as wide as the black painted rectangles at the tips of the hand. On the Mk 2/Mk 3, if you extended the sides of the lume rectangle to the black painted section, you can see that the lume section is more narrow.
2. There is a smaller gap between the rectangular lume section on the hands and the black painted section on the Mk 1 than on the Mk 2/Mk 3, where there is a more pronounced gap.
Both versions appear to be the same length, with the tip of the hour hand crossing just over the tip of the minute marks.
Service hands will often appear much whiter, and many times with a lume with greenish hue (though certainly not always as this is easily modified).
Below we see a comparison of the main hands.
From left to right:
Hands 1-3: Hour hand examples from Mk 1 – Mk 2/3 – Service
Hands 4-6: Minute hand examples from Mk 1 – Mk 2/3 – Service
