Oscillating at 36,000 alternations/hour, the Zenith El Primero was a high frequency automatic intergrated column wheel chronograph movement able to measure short time intervals to a tenth of a second, an unsurpassed world record.ĭuring the quartz crisis, Zenith became one of the brands Rolex bought calibers from for their chronographs because of their quality and accuracy. In 1969, the Zenith company won renown for introducing the world's first automatic chronograph movement, the Zenith El Primero. It is said that one night after Georges Favre Jacot finished a movement he considered almost perfection, he went out and looked at the stars and he felt the cosmos almost speak to him, he saw the gigantic constellation turning around the Pole star similar in the complexity to the movements of the pivots and the wheels on their axes, he decided then to call his new Zenith movement and its manufacture after the word that designates the highest point in the universe, ZENITH, the star was adopted as a brand symbol as it is still today.īy the time Jacot retired in 1929, Zenith had made watch history, winning grand prix medals for timekeeping precision at international expositions in Geneva, Paris, Barcelona, and Neuchatel. Blued screws, brushed cams, and that massive rotor are at play to direct your sight away from the other areas – but the equation adds up more to the El Primero being true to itself than it grandstanding as an exercise in fine watchmaking.Zenith watches was founded in 1865 by Georges Favre-Jacot, who, at the young age of 22, was one of the first watchmakers to understand the importance of the principle of interchangeable parts. The El Primero 400 is not shy about displaying rather plain looking surfaces: the large and imminently visible area behind the two chronograph runner gears, as well as the surface behind and around the balance wheel both stayed plain, with rough edges also on show. Comparing this Zenith El Primero to some other movements is like comparing a 4.0 liter flat six from a 911 to a roaring V12 from a Lamborghini: one was designed to work tirelessly, rain or shine, while the other is rather more delicate, finicky, and impresses in a more exotic way. While the El Primero looks very impressive at first, one has to bear in mind that it was designed to be a tool, a device, a workhorse movement – and upon closer inspection, that shows. Once you look behind the rotor, machine-finished parts of very high quality are revealed. The large, skeletonized automatic rotor runs on seven ball bearings, and sports a skeletonized Zenith star logo in its center, along with wide Geneva striping and some bold “Zenith El Primero Manufacture Le Locle” scripts engraved. Luckily, the Zenith El Primero Original 1969 comes with a sapphire crystal case-back, exposing the strikingly beautiful and indeed very technical-looking movement inside. And yet, as briefly discussed above, the complexity of this “base” movement is already truly remarkable. Over the years, Zenith has modified the El Primero in countless ways, adding complex calendars and even gimbal-suspended escapements (hands-on here) to it. Incidentally, 5 Hertz may just be the perfect frequency, as the motion of the seconds hands is remarkably smooth – but not so much to imply an electrical movement underneath, as the small jumps are still visually present. El Primero Original 1969 and Nikon D810.Ī post shared by David on at 10:29am PDTįurthermore, because the balance wheel ticks 10 times – as opposed to the much more common 8, or sometimes only 6 or 5 times, encountered in most other watches – the seconds hands advance in a visually smoother way, with an almost perfectly fluid, sweeping motion. Imagine that this happens every single minute when you're wearing the watch and you're not even aware 99% of the time. Wait for the reflection! Love the quality of execution, even at this level and when viewed so up close - macros are unkind but this is beautiful.
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