Photos: Photo by jcw (CC BY 3.0), via Wikimedia Commons · Photo by Zenith Japan (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons · Photo by Zenith El Primero (CC BY-SA 3.0), via Wikimedia Commons · Photo by Clyde94 (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons · Photo by EMore98 (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons
Zenith
Founded1865OriginLe Locle, SwitzerlandCatalog refs6Families4
Brand history
Founded by Georges Favre-Jacot in Le Locle; the El Primero, the first high-beat automatic chronograph, was designed and made here in 1969.
Founded 1865 in Le Locle by Georges Favre-Jacot. The El Primero (1969) is one of the three competing automatic-chronograph caliber launches of that year and is universally acknowledged as the most-advanced of the three, high-frequency (36,000 vph), column-wheel, and continuously in production for over half a century. The caliber survived the 1970s quartz crisis when an in-house engineer hid the tooling rather than scrap it.
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