Pioneering mechanics, innovative design, exciting history. Zenith El Primero brings with fake rolex watches it the best features of a watch that has left its mark on history.
Leaving aside some dynamics that we will deepen in a moment, it was in fact the first automatic chronograph in the world, defining new standards of precision and aesthetic canons.
Over the years, the brand has introduced several technical improvements and variations of the original design, which nowadays allow it to be admired in different shapes and models – more than fifty.
Let’s start from the beginning of its history.
The design origins of the Zenith El Primero movement
The idea was born in 1962, and was based on a very ambitious project for the time: to create the first automatic chronograph. And, as if this goal alone wasn’t challenging enough, the designers also wanted it to be the most accurate chronograph on the market.
The original plan foresaw the presentation to the public in 1965, on the occasion of the centennial of the Maison. A perfect anniversary for a project of this magnitude.
But reality proved less lenient than hoped, placing several obstacles on the path to success. In fact, a project of this magnitude required several technical measures, very complex for the time:
- It was necessary to integrate the chronograph system directly into the mechanism, to avoid excessive bulk due to additional components
- The desired absolute precision required a much faster oscillation than those that had been seen up to that moment in similar applications
- We had to try to keep the caliber within small dimensions, in order to respect a precise design idea
- Wanting to include the date window as well, it was necessary to find a way to do it without compromising size and functionality
The occurrence of these technical difficulties led to the inevitable postponement of the release date and the need to create 400 new machines for the realization of the project.
Zenith El Primero finally saw the light in 1969, seven years after the original idea and four years from the expected year.
Zenith El Primero 38 mm: the very first models
El Primero makes its debut in the public eye in 3 different models, A384, A385, A386. Among these, the one that gets the most success is certainly the A386 version. fake rolex watches
Although they share the same innovative technical characteristics, it is in fact on this latest model that Zenith shows its idea of alternative design:
- the famous partial overlapping of the chronograph counters, a hallmark of the brand
- the chromatism that plays on shades of anthracite gray and blue, changing from one counter to another
- the very thin bezel that allows an optimal reading of the dial
- the presence of a counter for dividing the minutes into 100 units on the tachymeter scale
- the date window between four and five o’clock
The desire to bring to light the most accurate chronograph in the world has resulted in a model in which the regulator works at an oscillation frequency of 36,000 vibrations per hour, with the incredible presence of the central seconds hand as well.
These characteristics of indisputable superiority have led over time to forget the fact that, chronologically speaking, El Primero was not really the first automatic chronograph in history.
In the same year, in fact, two other brands beat him, for a short time, on the time: Seiko with the 6139 and Chronomatic. However, both models of the opponents were clearly inferior technically, thus making it inevitable to consider Zenith as the only true holder of the throne.
Crisis and rebirth between the 70s and 80s
Although it was undoubtedly a masterpiece of technique and aesthetic design, El Primero also suffered the wave of the famous crisis that was lashing the watchmaking world relentlessly at the time. Quartz and digital watches monopolized market demand, making them more attractive than mechanical ones thanks to the perfect combination of extreme precision and low prices.
In the 1970s Zenith passed under American administration, which decided to follow the trends of the moment and focus production on quartz movements, abandoning the mechanical ones. The leaders even decided that all the machinery intended for that use should be dismantled, constituting useless industrial relics at that point.
It was thanks to the far-sighted passion of Charles Vermot – Zenith watchmaker at the time – that this did not happen. Convinced that mechanical watches would make a comeback on the market, Charles hid a large number of designs and machinery in an attic inaccessible to anyone else, keeping them safe.
A gesture that the brand itself then recognized as worthy of praise, considering that a decade later it allowed it to recover from the crisis.
Rolex’s role in the relaunch of Zenith
The new Daytona needed a self-winding chronograph and Rolex knew that the best it could find on the market was the still undefeated Zenith movement. The El Primero caliber was then chosen as the ideal example for the Rolex model, which still had to make several changes to better integrate with its projects.
Hence the Rolex Daytona Zenith El Primero.
After signing a 10-year agreement with replica watches Rolex, Zenith finally had the financial resources to return to the office. The line on which he invested his creative energies the most in the following years? Guess what.
The El Primero models
Zenith El primero from the 70s
In 1969, the very first three references we have just talked about came out. At a very short distance Zenith mounted its brand new caliber on other models and variants, to try to widen the market share and experience something new. fake rolex watches
A very special case was the Zenith El Primero TV, a model that takes its name from its rectangular shape very similar to the televisions of those years. An example that perhaps fully represents the retro idea we have today of the 70s, it is characterized by a quadrangular style in every element, which even accompanies the chronograph counters, no longer round.
