Why We Love It

Zenith, while not a household name, is certainly a known name in the world of watches - particularly in collecting circles. The primary reason?

The El Primero.

One of the first automatic chronograph movements released to an eager consumer public in 1969, the El Primero movement has become legend for its high-beat accuracy, reliability, and quickset date functionality. The movement is still being made today, and has found itself at home in a variety of watches from any number of brands, including Ebel, Movado, Waldan - and even Rolex's mighty Daytona Cosmograph. 

Of course its primary application is in Zenith branded timepieces, of which there have been a multitude of near-forgotten gems.

One such example is this De Luca chronograph from the 1980s. This incredibly cool piece features a reverse-panda dial, Tritium luminous, a rotating timing bezel, and a sporty 40mm stainless steel case.

The De Luca may not be an icon - yet - but it is a Neo-Vintage masterpiece that definitely adds up to more than the sum of its parts.

Don't miss it!

The Story

In 1969, as the Soviets and the Americans raced to put a man on the moon, watch brands raced to develop the first automatic chronograph movement. The fiercest competition was among the Swiss, with two camps vying against each other for supremacy: Hamilton, in concert with Heuer, Breitling, Dubois-Depraz, and new Hamilton acquisition, Buren, who would use Buren's Intra-Matic to develop the "Chrono-Matic" (or Caliber 11) under the mysterious title of Project 99. Then there were Zenith and Movado, who'd already made a name for themselves as producers of fine chronographs.

Zenith’s journey to develop the El Primero began in 1962, for a target date of 1965, the company’s centennial. Although Zenith would overshoot the date by four years, the movement that they produced would break the mold as far as chronograph movements were concerned—both literally and figuratively.

It would be the first automatic chronograph movement. Furthermore, it would be the first chronograph movement where the construction would fully integrate the chronograph complication, rather than containing it in a module. Instead, the El Primero would contain a column wheel and a rotor mounted on ball bearings. Moreover, of the three automatic chronograph movements that were released in 1969, only the El Primero was high-beat, meaning that it beat at a rate of 36,000 bph. This offered significant added accuracy, down to one tenths of a second.