But what made it so special, even in today’s production, was its high-frequency, beating not at 3Hz or 4Hz, like most other chronographs, but at 5Hz / 36,000vph – meaning it was able to indicate the 10th of a second. It was launched in 1969, as one of the very first (if not the first) automatic chronograph movements, and already showed impressive architecture – fully integrated chronograph with central rotor and column-wheel, far from a last-minute patch-up job.
The El Primero is one of the few iconic movements.
The story of the Zenith El Primero has almost become legend. When we talk about icons in watchmaking, most of the time we refer to watches as a whole. Here is the Zenith Defy El Primero 21… and it’s fast, very fast. At Baselworld, the Le Locle-based manufacture has given this fast-beating engine a 21st century appeal: 50Hz frequency, precision to 100th of a second, modern look, open-worked movement. Back in 1969, Zenith introduced a movement that would later become an icon, being both one of the first automatic chronograph movements, and being the 20th century’s king of precision, beating at 5Hz and being precise to a 10th of a second.
