Zenith Chronomaster El Primero 1969 'Rolling Stones Edition'

For many years, the words El Primero held little meaning outside of serious vintage watch enthusiast and collectors groups. But that all changed a few years ago when Zenith began reissuing many of its famed designs from the 1960s and 1970s.

The El Primero was the culmination of a years-long research and development process undertaken by Zenith to develop the world’s first automatic chronograph movement. While other brands had sought to achieve the same feat — including Heuer (in concert with Breitling and Hamilton) and Seiko — Zenith intended to make the El Primero something entirely unique. Instead of taking an automatic module and merely sandwiching it onto the chronograph, Zenith fully integrated the two; moreover, the movement is a high-beat calibre offering significant added accuracy.

Zenith announced the El Primero at a press conference on January 10, 1969. This was four years later than the brand had intended: the brand had begun developing the calibre in 1963, hoping to bring it out for Zenith’s centennial in 1965. Nevertheless, on that winter day in 1969, Zenith proudly displayed a working model of its chronograph.

The A386 was the first model to be fitted with the El Primero movement, and therefore commands a hefty premium among collectors for its horological import. Over the past decade, Zenith has used this important model as the basis of numerous reissues, among which were two aluminum-cased watches from 2017 called, simply, Chronomaster El Primero. Available in black or white dials, these cool pieces presaged the myriad compelling special editions that have since excited the modern collector community.

This Chronomaster El Primero, a Reference 96.2260.4061/21.R575, measures 45mm in black DLC coated titanium with dual pushers, a signed crown, a smooth bezel, and a sapphire crystal. The case has pierced lugs that give it a modern and imposing appearance.

Its matte black dial features an outer minute scale with white printing, an inner ring of applied hour indices and a triple-register chronograph display. This piece is unqiue however, since the upper left register features a skeletonized view of the movement, including the escapement wheel and pallet fork assembly.

This piece was made as a limited edition for the Rolling Stones in 1000 examples. It features a leather strap flaunting the UK flag and Rolling Stones tongue emblem. The same motif is extended to the automatic winding rotor of the El Primero movement.

Georges Favre-Jacot began producing pocket watches in Le Locle at the age of twenty-two. By the turn of the 20th century, Favre-Jacot was producing marine chronometers and chronometer-grade movements, one of which won a chronometry competition in Neuchâtel in 1903. Under the name Zenith, formally established in 1911, Favre-Jacot expanded his production to include wristwatches.

Zenith's chronographs in particular gained a reputation for excellence. At first Zenith used Excelsior Park and Valjoux movements, sharing them with Universal Genève and Movado (with which Zenith would merge for a time in 1969). By the 1960s Zenith acquired ébauche manufacturer Martel and began using their movements exclusively, leading to lauded calibers such as the 146HP and 146DP, which launched in 1969.

1969 was a banner year for horology, as it saw the launch of the first automatic chronograph movement. This was a race between a team consisting of Hamilton, Heuer, Buren, Dubois-Depraz, and Breitling; Seiko; and Zenith. Zenith used the Caliber 146 as a basis for the caliber which the brand would dub "El Primero" — "the first." Of the consortium’s Caliber 11, Seiko’s reference 6139, and the El Primero, only the latter feature a “high-beat” movement for increased accuracy.

Zenith ceased using manually-wound movements in their chronographs after the introduction of the El Primero — however, then the Quartz Crisis of the 1970s hit, and the company was sold. Employees were ordered to destroy or otherwise liquidate their mechanical watchmaking tooling, but incredibly, one daring engineer, Charles Vermot, decided to hide machinery behind a false wall that he built himself in the attic of the company’s manufacture in Le Locle. He told no one about what he was doing — not even his family.

Then, in the 1980s after the company had changed hands once again, he led modern Zenith management to this secret cache of horological wonders, in which the El Primero tooling was hidden. Ebel placed the first modern order for El Primero movements in 1984, but it was Rolex, who ordered thousands of calibers to power their new automatic Daytonas, that saved the firm. Today, the El Primero powers numerous vintage-inspired chronographs as well as the new Chronomaster Sport, a watch aimed as a competitor at — with much irony — the Daytona.

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