Schweiz · Gegründet 1865
Zenith
A watchmaker hid the El Primero tooling in an attic in 1975 rather than see it scrapped.
Redaktioneller Text auf Englisch.
LVMH-owned manufacture in Le Locle, founded by Georges Favre-Jacot in 1865. Best known for the El Primero, a 36,000 vph automatic chronograph calibre unveiled in 1969 and used today in the Chronomaster and Defy lines, alongside Pilot and Elite models. Core prices sit around EUR 8,000–16,000.
Geschichte
Georges Favre-Jacot was 22 when he set up a watchmaking workshop in Le Locle in 1865. Instead of relying on scattered home workers, he brought the trades together in one manufacture at Les Billodes, and after visiting the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia he adopted American factory methods. A calibre named Zenith won a Grand Prix at the 1900 Paris World's Fair, and in 1911 the company definitively adopted Zenith as its name, with a star as emblem.
Precision became the firm's calling card. The Calibre 135 of 1948 collected 235 chronometry prizes, and its competition version, the 135-O, won five Neuchâtel Observatory prizes between 1950 and 1954. Zenith bought the movement maker Martel in 1959. In the United States its sales were held back by the name clash with Zenith Radio, and in 1968 it merged with Movado, later adding Mondia, to sell there under the established Movado name.
Work on an automatic chronograph began in 1962 with the company's centenary in view. The El Primero was unveiled on 10 January 1969: an integrated automatic chronograph beating at 36,000 vibrations per hour, fast enough to time tenths of a second. In 1972 Zenith Radio took over the Swiss company and pushed it towards quartz. In 1975 watchmaker Charles Vermot hid the El Primero tools and plans in the attic of the Ponts-de-Martel site instead of scrapping them, which allowed production to restart in 1984.
Dixi bought the group from Zenith Radio in 1978, and the revived El Primero found outside customers: Rolex used a modified version in the Cosmograph Daytona from 1988 to 2000. The slim Elite calibre followed in 1994, and LVMH bought Zenith in November 1999. The Defy El Primero 21 of 2017 added a second escapement for hundredths of a second, and the Chronomaster Sport of 2021 brought a tenth-of-a-second chronograph into the core range. Zenith counts more than 2,300 chronometry prizes.
Gründer
- Georges Favre-Jacot
- Founder · 1843–1917
- Le Locle watchmaker who founded his workshop at 22 and built one of the first integrated manufactures in the Swiss Jura. The company later took the name of its Zenith calibre.
Meilensteine
1865
Workshop founded in Le Locle
Georges Favre-Jacot, 22, sets up the business that becomes the Billodes manufacture.
1900
Grand Prix in Paris
The Zenith calibre wins a Grand Prix at the Paris World's Fair.
1911
Company renamed Zenith
The manufacture definitively adopts the name of its prize-winning calibre.
1948
Calibre 135
A chronometer calibre that goes on to win 235 chronometry prizes.
1969
El Primero unveiled
Presented on 10 January 1969, an integrated automatic chronograph beating at 36,000 vph.
1975
Charles Vermot hides the tooling
Ordered to dispose of the El Primero equipment, Vermot stores it in the attic at Ponts-de-Martel.
1984
Mechanical production resumes
The hidden tools and plans allow El Primero production to restart.
1988
El Primero in the Rolex Daytona
Rolex begins using a modified El Primero, a supply that lasts until 2000.
1999
LVMH acquisition
LVMH buys Zenith in November 1999, adding it to its watch division.
2017
Defy El Primero 21
A chronograph with a separate 50 Hz escapement measures hundredths of a second.
Drei Dinge, die Sammler wissen
Rolex's chronograph supplier
From 1988 to 2000 Rolex used a modified El Primero in the Cosmograph Daytona. Rolex replaced it with its own Calibre 4130 in 2000.
Why 36,000 vph matters
At 36,000 vibrations per hour the El Primero's balance beats ten times a second, so the chronograph can show tenths of a second rather than the eighths of a 28,800 vph movement.
The radio maker that bought it
Zenith struggled to sell under its own name in the US because of Zenith Radio. The radio company then bought the Swiss firm in 1972 and moved it towards quartz.
Wichtige Modelle
- El Primero A3861969
One of the first El Primero references, with overlapping tri-colour counters; the Chronomaster Original of 2021 revives it.
- Chronomaster Sport2021
Chronograph with a ceramic bezel and El Primero movement reading tenths of a second.
- Defy El Primero 212017
Chronograph with a dedicated 50 Hz escapement for hundredths of a second.
- Defy Skyline2022
Integrated-bracelet steel sports watch with an El Primero-based movement and tenth-of-a-second display.
Fragen
- Who owns Zenith?
- LVMH, which bought Zenith in November 1999. It sits in the group's watch division alongside TAG Heuer and Hublot.
- What is the Zenith El Primero?
- An automatic chronograph calibre unveiled on 10 January 1969, one of the first integrated automatic chronographs and the first to beat at 36,000 vibrations per hour. More than 70 versions have followed.
- Did Rolex use Zenith movements?
- Yes. From 1988 to 2000 the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona used a modified El Primero, before Rolex introduced its in-house Calibre 4130.
- Where are Zenith watches made?
- In Le Locle in the canton of Neuchâtel, at the Billodes manufacture that has been the company's home since its early decades.