THE GOLDEN DECADES
A brief history on the becoming of the legendary Zenith El Primero
1960s: The Bi h of a Legend
At the end of the Second World War, the watchmaking context was no longer favourable to hand-wound chronographs, but instead self-winding movements that kept accurate time on their wrists were deemed as a “modernity”.
In keeping with the era’s ethos and aspirations, Zenith grasped the opportunity with the introduction of the El Primero movement, launched at a press conference held in Le Locle on January 10, 1969 ‒ a high-frequency movement, gestated during the seven years prior, that did not just wish to adjust, but to rethink.
Launched under the name of MZM Holding, Mondia Zenith Movado, a consortium created in the late 1960s, the El Primero movement came at a time when the watchmaking industry was at its most competitive, with other companies such as Seiko, Hamilton, Breitling, Heuer and Dubois Dépraz were in the running to launch the first self-winding chronograph.
Translated from Spanish as “the first”, El Primero marked the beginning of totally innovative production methods independent of chronograph winders. The high frequency contributed to an accuracy at 36,000 vibrations per hour ‒ thus enabling the split of the second into 10 equal parts, allowing the large seconds hand to display 1/10th of a second ‒ whereby potential shocks are much less likely to have an impact on the movement of the watch.
1970s: The Great Secret
In 1970, 16 Swiss brands created a consortium of market quartz watches, and the Swiss were quickly joined by the Americans: Motorola, Texas Instruments and National Semiconductor. Before long, the El Primero movement was competing with quartz movements.
On May 28, 1971, the company was sold to Chicago-based Zenith Radio Corporation, followed by MZM Holding’s dissolvement on June 21, 1972.
By the mid-1970s, the American administrators no longer believed in the future of mechanical watchmaking. They decided to cease production of mechanical movements, and disposed of the tooling and machinery stocks required to manufacture the movement.
Against all expectations, and against management orders, the fate of the El
Primero rested on one Charles Vermot, a foreman who was in charge of Workshop
4 in the Le Locle manufacture at the time.
With a foresight of a future for mechanical watchmaking, he safeguarded the tools necessary for the manufacture of El Primero in the greatest secrecy: about 150 presses (worth about 40,000 francs each at the time), cams, operating plans, cutting tools and manufacturing plans necessary for the recreation of the El Primero movement ‒ a total reconstitution that would have amounted the company up to seven million francs.
Vermot managed to smuggled the trade secrets of the El Primero movement to the attic and had that part of the building walled up.
1980s: The Renaissance
After the takeover by Dixi in 1978, Zenith was nothing more than a movement supplier company to certain major brands, one of which was Rolex. In 1984, Rolex expressed a demand for a reliable ‘motor’ in large quantities needed to manufacture El Primero for its Daytona model. That was when the walled-up attic was broken down to retrieve the hidden tools required to restart the engines of the El Primero.
Rolex signed a 10-year contract with Zenith, as the production of the El Primero calibre resumed, leading to the first Daytona watches equipped with a Zenith movement presented at the Baselworld Fair in 1988. Zenith then relaunched production to equip its own models and chronographs with its own in-house calibre, namely chronographs flagships like Academy, Cosmopolitan and De Luca. This reinstated
Zenith’s status as a Manufacture in its place on the Swiss watchmaking scene.
1990s: A Star is (Re)born
In 1991, the Zenith Manufacture celebrated the 700th anniversary of the Swiss Confederation with two exclusive models equipped with two variations of the relaunched El Primero: a 900-piece limited edition chronographchronometer with a simple date, and a 250-piece limited edition chronographchronometer with day, month and moon phase ‒ all housed within a yellow gold case.
The ChronoMaster served to reposition the El Primero, its rebirth further strengthened two years later with the new Flyback function specially dedicated to aviation enthusiasts, and enriching the Rainbow Flyback models, launched in 1997.
2000s: Shining Brighter
Zenith and the El Primero took to a new direction, when LVMH bought the company in 1999, at a time when luxury groups understood the importance of developing a watchmaking branch.
Under the aegis of the LVMH group, El Primero welcomed ever-more sophisticated horological complications, justified by the raison d’être of its symbol: the star. From 2003 onwards, the heart of the El Primero would appear through the front, through a purposebuilt dial opening. With this new design, the movement adopted a tourbillon for a model named Grande ChronoMaster XXT Tourbillon in 2004 ‒ the first high frequency tourbillon on the market. It was followed by a perpetual calendar, the Grande ChronoMaster XXT Perpetual Calendar; and in 2005 by the Class Traveler minute repeater, an exercise that required the filing of 30 patents. Finally, in 2007, Zenith combined the tourbillon and the perpetual calendar within the Academy timepiece.
2010s: Se ing Course towards Precision
The El Primero Striking 10th was launched in 2010, at a time when it’s all about instantaneity, with social media contemporaries like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram ‒ an object that perfectly sums up this decade of immediacy.
In 2017, Zenith launched the Defy El Primero 21, which was able to measure and display a mechanical value that was difficult to reach: 100th of a second. This is made possible by an ‘engine’ oscillating at 50 Hz, with the heart of the movement beats at a dazzling speed of 360,000 vibrations per hour. That same year, Zenith presented the Defy Lab, equipped with a revolutionary new monobloc oscillator made of monocrystalline silicon, replacing the balancespring used in mechanical watchmaking since its invention in 1675, as it beats at the extremely high frequency of 18 Hz.
Today, we reach the titular time when El Primero celebrates its half-century milestone. Marking the wondrous 50-year journey, the Zenith El Primero 50th Anniversary boxed set holds within the 50-piece limited edition satin-brushed grey presentation box: a reissue of the first El Primero model of 1969; a Chronomaster El Primero with optimised movement; a Defy El Primero 21 accurate to 1/100th of a second; and a fourth stil-empty cushion to accommodate Zenith’s next feats in the field of extreme high frequency, measuring at 1/1,000th of a second. AM