Zenith are extremely well known, very highly regarded, have a very clear brand positioning, yet still somehow production numbers remain low and they don't get the status they deserve. This year they are celebrating 160 years of continuous production and their current line up reflects their heritage and expertise very well.

Zenith got started in 1865 due to the vision of Georges Favre-Jacot that watch manufacturing should be integrated, and that component manufacture and assembly would benefit from taking place under the same roof. This idea was pretty radical in the industry at the time and is still the preserve of only a small number of watch brands. Since 1870 Zenith have produced their timepieces on the same site in Le Locle in Switzerland, which is now part of the Unesco World Heritage site for watchmaking.

They knew what they were doing focussing on high-end calibres as they were successful enough to start selling worldwide by 1880. Georges trademarked the Pilot name in 1888, which did not mean what it means today then but has meant they're the only brand in the world allowed to put it on the dial. By 1900 they were producing 100,000 watches a year.

The Zenith Manufacture at its 19th Century peak. Image source: Zenith, courtesy of all-i-c.com

Before the introduction of quartz timekeeping, the world's top watchmakers competed to win awards in precision timekeeping run by Scientific Observatories, such as that in Biel, Switzerland. They received their first Chronometry award in 1900 and have since won an astonishing 2,330, more than any other producer, including an incredible run in the 50s of 4 straight years of winning the top prize with the Calibre 135. This movement was designed entirely to win competitions but was also in regular production, so if you're hunting something ultra precise from the middle of the 20th century you should check them out. One of the world's leading vintageZenith experts is a Member of The Watch Collectors' Club and can be found at Tortoise Watches in London's Greys Antiques market.

An advertisement for the Calibre 135. Source: all-i-c.com

The El Primero Story

Zenith's most famous and important watch is the El Primero, the first automatic chronograph launched in 1969. They were the first to announce it, and some may say first to market. What made theirs stand out was that it was, and remains a High-frequency movement, beating at 5 Hertz which provide higher accuracy for both the timekeeping and the chronograph mechanism, allowing timing down to the 10th of a second. The big innovation on this front is the Chronograph seconds hand making a revolution once every 10 seconds. You can see this clearly in today's models.

When the quartz crisis hit and the brand's American owners asked for all mechanical movement production to halt in 1978, an employee called Charles Vermont hid all the tooling and machinery for the El Primero in an attic. It was resurrected in 1984 and in 1989 Rolex put the movement into their famous Daytona range. Zenith were highly successful in launching their models back to market, and other brands used the movement too.

An original Series 1 El Primero belonging to a Member of The Watch Collectors' Club

The company has continued to innovate with many interesting variations and complications built on top of the El Primero movement, and used it in a strong line of products including the Pilot range of aviation-inspired watches re-introduced last year. The Chronomaster has been the name of their Chronograph range since 1994, and this evolved into the Chronomaster Sport. The Defy line has a more modern look and some fantastic skeletonisation, building on open-heart dials they pioneered previously, and this year they've launched something brand new that looks back to their proud history of winning chronometer competitions.

The ultra-high accuracy GFJ has an improved Calibre 135 within it, giving the brand a very sharp dress watch line to pursue in future. It's a great-looking watch and it will be exciting to see how they add to this premium range in future.