Zenith is one of the top Swiss watchmakers, best known for sporty chronograph models powered by their El Primero caliber, famous for its reliability and high 10-beat-per-second rate. Zenith makes other excellent luxury watches as well, including pilot watches and slim dress watches, and they remain an excellent relative value on the secondhand watch market.
Zenith History
Zenith did not always bear this name. The Zenith brand was officially adopted in 1911. Still, the inspiration came to Georges Favre-Jacot, the founder of the company, much earlier. After finishing a caliber, he thought that the highest point of the universe was the fitting name for such mechanical excellence.
Zenith founder Georges Favre-Jacot
The company manufactured precision pocket watches since 1865, and its first chronograph dated back to 1899. It later expanded its activities to high-grade chronometers table clocks and pendulum clocks. Its dedication to precise watchmaking was marked by its regular participation in the Neuchatel observatory contests.
Its fame grew, and the company expanded, selling watches all over the world. It opened branches in Moscow in 1908, in Paris in 1909, and London in 1914.
In 1911 the company became a stock company, and the company passed into the hands of James Favre. He expanded the international network of the company by opening a branch in New York in 1926. In this era, the company employed over 1,000 people.
The years after the war saw the diffusion of wrist watches. The company dedicated its efforts to the field, manufacturing precious movements incorporating complications such as chronograph and alarm functions. In 1929, the Kew observatory in England affirmed that a Zenith caliber set a world record for precision, with a daily deviation of only 0.6 seconds.
In the following years, Zenith cooperated with Mondia and Movado to create its best-known chronograph movement, the “El Primero.” It was a caliber so precise it could measure the tenth of a second mechanically and debuted in 1969 with tremendous success.
Unfortunately, the quartz crisis fell upon the mechanical watch world. An American electronics manufacturing group bought Zenith. The USA management ordered to dismiss every activity relating to mechanical watch production and destroy movements and machinery. But Charles Vermot, then head of the chronograph developing team, rebelled against the directive. With his fellow employees’ cooperation, he disassembled the machinery and hid documents, completed movements, and parts in the vast Zenith complex. In this way, he saved the El Primero and the mechanical watch production from oblivion.
At the end of 1978, luckily the company changed hands again. With the help of another watchmaker, Ebel, the production of mechanical watches resumed. The company entered into the LVMH luxury group in 1999 and continued to manufacture notable watches that follow the original aim of the watchmaker: striving for ultimate precision.
Most Popular Zenith Watches
Chronomaster/El Primero
Zenith Chronomaster Sport chronograph ref. 18.3100.3600/69.C920
The most popular watch of the company is not a real collection, but a caliber, the El Primero. The movement was – and is – so excellent that it was used for some years inside the Rolex Daytona models.
From its origins in 1969, the El Primero movement was interpreted in countless versions.
Its own line is called Chronomaster, and the caliber is also mounted in other collections of the company, from the most classical to the most modern and groundbreaking, like models featuring a twin escapement to measure the 1/100th of a second, a tourbillon, or a fusee chain transmission to ensure a constant driving force.
Defy
Zenith Defy
The Defy is a line that hosts the boldest, rugged, and innovative timepieces of the Maison: so it is a sort of “specialization” into which might also fall watches belonging to other lines. The Defy is best characterized by the innovative ways how Zenith uses materials and incorporates new technologies, like the carbon nanotubes used in spirals, or the silicon balance that is mounted inside the Defy Lab limited edition.
Elite
Zenith Elite
The Elite, instead, is a traditional dress watch and expresses the continuity of the tradition of the watchmaker in providing an elegant timepiece that is suited to every formal occasion. Some of the models are ultra-thin and offer a wide range of calibers incorporating advanced features such as power reserve indicator and GMT.
Pilot
Zenith Pilot Automatic. Image: Zenithf
The Pilot watches by Zenith are also extremely sought-after. They are made respecting the tradition of old “fliegers,” so you will find some beautiful timepieces with that rétro military look that will win you over.
News
The “grenier” or attic has become a sort of important feature in Zenith’s history. The attic of Zenith has offered yet another treasure. Inside an unassuming and unlabelled box, it was discovered a different version of the dial used in the original A386 Chronomaster El Primero dial.
The company has decided to offer this dial, along with the original case, as a manufacture edition to mark in 2019 the El Primero’s 50th anniversary. Initially, it was reserved solely for purchase by the visitors of the Zenith factory.
However, as today it is impossible to visit the Zenith premises due to the COVID issues, the company has decided to make the watch available for e-commerce shopping. The watch comes in special packaging, mimicking a book that can be displayed on a bookshelf and bearing a blueprint of the Zenith manufacture on its cover. It includes a comic book about Charles Vermot by renowned Swiss cartoonist Cosey and a reproduction of the vintage dial found in the attic.
Gossip/Style
As a brand, Zenith has always kept a low-profile image, more interested in performance and accuracy than glam, and one of its only public debuts testimonies it.
Zenith was the technical partner for the Red Bull Stratos mission in 2012. Felix Baumgartner launched himself into the stratosphere from a space capsule supported by a helium-powered balloon. During the free fall, with a Zenith watch at his wrist, Felix Baumgartner reached a record speed of 1342 km per hour, establishing several world records.
Felix Baumgartner. Image: Georges Biard (CC BY-SA 3.0)
A sort of hidden gem that the volcanic Jean Claude Biver, one of the legends of watchmaking, was trying to uncover for the big public in 2017, to repeat the magic he had practiced with TAG Heuer and Hublot.
Jean-Claude Bivet. Image: Red Dot
Unfortunately for Zenith, Biver in 2018 announced his decision to step back from active duty for health reasons.
How Much Does a Zenith Watch Cost?
$4,000 is enough to get you a decent used Zenith El Primero chronograph, with some of the cool newer models (like much of the Defy lineup) closer to $8,000. MSRP for most of their current watches is around $10,000.
How good are Zenith watches?
Zenith is a legitimate Swiss luxury watchmaker that holds its own in the $10,000 range no problem. While they aren’t known for finishing as exquisite as A. Lange & Söhne or Patek Philippe, they can credibly compete with the likes of Rolex and Omega.