In the 2000's, variations on the El Primero base exploded. They also added a complication For the first time, Cal. They moved the date window from 4 30 to 6 00, a mammoth undertaking requiring relocation of the three sub-dials as well. Rolex commissioned their own version for the rebooted Daytona, and Zenith began investing in the movement for the first time in 30 years. 400 the next year, it remains in production to this day.Īs the 1990's arrived, high-end watch companies recovered and Zenith's El Primero became the envy of the industry. 40.0 but leaving it largely unchanged otherwise. They restarted production in 1985, renaming the movement Cal. The El Primero was one of the best products of the 1960's, and Zenith was lucky that the tooling was saved. In the 1980's, it became clear that the market for high-end mechanical watches was recovering and the surviving companies went looking for their glorious past movements.
As with the Valjoux 7750, one watchmaker inside the company saved the parts and tooling from destruction, and saved the movement for the future.
The company changed hands and ended production. The entire industry turned to more-accurate and inexpensive quartz movements and Zenith suffered mightily.
Zenith chronomaster el primero automatic chronograph full#
Throughout that 10-year production run, the company modified the original movement just once, producing just 800 full calendar and moon phase movements.Īs the 1970's continued, the market for high-end movements like the El Primero had disappeared. The El Primero seemed to be a sure-thing, and Zenith used it as a halo for their entire line, just as the Constellation chronometer had been. All this was made possible by increased industrialization of the watchmaking process, new materials, and the strength of companies like Zenith. Not only was the original El Primero movement one of the first automatic chronographs, it was one of the first high-beat chronograph as well. It was launched at a time of innovation, when design and manufacturing went high-tech. The evolution of the El Primero watch movement mirrors the watch industry from the 1960's to today. By this time, both the Chronomatic and Seiko 6139 were already in production and available to customers. It was not until late in 1969 that Zenith was able to produce customer-ready movements and watches. By late 1968, a few El Primero prototypes had been produced and these were shown to the world in January. They had begun developing their integrated automatic chronograph at the beginning of the decade, with the project stalled and restarted later. 3019 "El Primero" movement (“The First”) was unveiled in a quiet press conference in Geneva on January 10 of the same year. Realizing that this announcement was imminent, Zenith rushed to preempt them. The barrel of the Chronomatic is wound by means of an eccentric weight segment, a concept called a “ microrotor”. On March 3, 1969, this group presented their product under the name of “ Chronomatic” simultaneously in Geneva, New York, Hong Kong and Beirut. In the late 1960s there was a prestigious race to develop the world's first mechanical chronograph with automatic winding Heuer-Leonidas and Dubois Dépraz had initiated the secret “Project 99” to develop such a movement, bringing in Hamilton/ Büren and Breitling.
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