Zenith El Primero

The introduction of the El Primero movement was an unqualified triumph for Zenith.

As (arguably) the first self-winding chronograph movement — hence its name — the El Primero was a horological game-changer. It was the culmination of five years of research and development, and was the first watch to integrate the chronograph within the automatic movement, rather than house it in a module that was sandwiched on top. Moreover, it was also a hi-beat movement, guaranteeing accuracy that was unparalleled — accuracy to within 1/10th of a second.

Following a long and tumultuous history, the modern Zenith company debuted several vintage-inspired chronographs in the 1990s and 2000s that housed contemporary takes on the El Primero movement, including this one. 

Housed in a 38mm stainless steel case with a sapphire crystal, a signed crown, and a polished, stepped beel, it features a luminous sunburst silver dial with applied indices, a matching handset, a triple-register chronograph layout, an outer tachymeter scale, and a date window at 4:30. Powered by the automatic Zenith El Primero movement, it comes paired to a blue leather strap with an unsigned, stainless steel pin buckle.

With its terrific proportions, handsome dial, famed, automatic caliber and versatile design, only the slightly oversized case and sapphire display caseback would give this watch away as a modern reissue, rather than a 1960s original. 

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Georges Favre-Jacot began producing pocket watches in Le Locle at the age of twenty-two. By the turn of the 20th century, Favre-Jacot was producing marine chronometers and chronometer-grade movements, one of which won a chronometry competition in Neuchâtel in 1903. Under the name Zenith, formally established in 1911, Favre-Jacot expanded his production to include wristwatches.
Zenith's chronographs in particular gained a reputation for excellence. At first Zenith used Excelsior Park and Valjoux movements, sharing them with Universal Genève and Movado (with which Zenith would merge for a time in 1969). By the 1960s Zenith acquired ébauche manufacturer Martel and began using their movements exclusively, leading to lauded calibers such as the 146HP and 146DP, which launched in 1969.
1969 was a banner year for horology, as it saw the launch of the first automatic chronograph movement. This was a race between a team consisting of Hamilton, Heuer, Buren, Dubois-Depraz, and Breitling; Seiko; and Zenith. Zenith used the Caliber 146 as a basis for the caliber which the brand would dub "El Primero" — "the first." Of the consortium’s Caliber 11, Seiko’s reference 6139, and the El Primero, only the latter feature a “high-beat” movement for increased accuracy.
Zenith ceased using manually-wound movements in their chronographs after the introduction of the El Primero — however, then the Quartz Crisis of the 1970s hit, and the company was sold. Employees were ordered to destroy or otherwise liquidate their mechanical watchmaking tooling, but incredibly, one daring engineer, Charles Vermot, decided to hide machinery behind a false wall that he built himself in the attic of the company’s manufacture in Le Locle. He told no one about what he was doing — not even his family.

Then, in the 1980s after the company had changed hands once again, he led modern Zenith management to this secret cache of horological wonders, in which the El Primero tooling was hidden. Ebel placed the first modern order for El Primero movements in 1984, but it was Rolex, who ordered thousands of calibers to power their new automatic Daytonas, that saved the firm. Today, the El Primero powers numerous vintage-inspired chronographs as well as the new Chronomaster Sport, a watch aimed as a competitor at — with much irony — the Daytona.

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We back each Analog:Shift vintage timepiece with a one-year mechanical warranty from the date of purchase.

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