Zenith
When Georges Favre-Jacot founded his own watchmaking workshop in 1865. In the village of Le Locle he had a vision of the largest and most successful manufacture in the world. His dream soon came true and by the beginning of the 20th century, he had cornered all the markets. His Zenith movement was also popular with pilots and aviation pioneers. World War I and World War II the armies relied on Zenith’s precision watches which won numerous chronometric awards. The legendary El Primero movement, an automatic with a frequency of 36,000 oscillations per hour, became synonymous with modern watchmaking in 1969 and the brand also produced it for other equally important companies Today, Zenith is modern and youthful, easily recognisable design makes them a fashion icon.
Aviation
At the beginning of the 20th century, a Zenith pilot watch was worn by one of the greatest aviation pioneers, Louis Blériot, during his famous 1909 flight across the English Channel. “I am very satisfied with the Zenith watch which I usually use and I cannot recommend it highly enough to people who care about accuracy,” the aviator wrote in Zenith’s guestbook in 1913.
Zenith has remained faithful to aviation to this day, as testified by its latest PILOT collection, which includes both models with chronographs as well as classic models with a simple and functional look.
Chronograph
Zenith is proud to have earned the nickname Master of Chronographs, which it views as a testament to its great past but also as a commitment to the future. Zenith has been associated with watches equipped with a movement that can measure individual segments of time since the beginning of the 20th century.
Zenith chronographs with the latest version of the El Primero calibre are now available in the Chronomaster, DEFY and PILOT collections.
Precision
The El Primero chronograph has gained appreciation in the watchmaking industry for its automatic mechanism and precision. The 5Hz frequency enables it to measure individual time segments with a precision of 1/10th of a second. This is why Zenith manufactured this movement for other brands, including Rolex and Ebel, in the 1980s. Today, it is used in selected models of other LVMH brands.
In 2007, Zenith introduced the DEFY El Primero 21 movement with a frequency of 50Hz, which improved the precision of the stopwatch function to 1/100th of a second. Over the years, Zenith movements have won over 2,330 chronometry prizes!
Innovation
Engineers in the Le Locle manufacture pursue the development of Zenith’s heritage to meet the requirements of present-day clients. In 2022, they presented the latest version of the movement with the El Primero 3600 chronograph, which is part of the DEFY Skyline sub-collection. Besides developing new calibres, Zenith also uses innovative materials such as light carbon and black or white ceramics.
Exclusivity
Zenith’s production output is limited to some 25,000-30,000 pieces per year and CEO Benoit de Clerck has made clear that Zenith does not intend to increase production in the coming years. So far, production has successfully met the demand of collectors. The exclusivity of Zenith watches is partly due to the demanding process of movement production: movements are developed, manufactured, and finished in the Le Locle Manufacture.
Elegance
Zenith’s model lines are aimed to satisfy both lovers of sports watches as well as those who prefer timeless elegance. The ELITE model line has an especially contemporary spirit that also includes the minimalist aesthetics of watches from the 1950s. The DEFY Skyline sub-collection offers wonderfully sporty-elegant models.
The mechanical precision watches from Zenith Manufacture in Le Locle, Switzerland, have been appreciated by watchmaking enthusiasts and collectors worldwide. Besides working knowledgeably with its heritage of high-frequency, unprecedently precise chronographs, Zenith is also a pioneer in the field of pilot watches. Zenith doesn’t forget about collectors with a penchant for extravagance, skeleton movements, or for classical suit watches, either.
Zenith Manufacture’s uncompromising approach to watchmaking and its in-house calibres have made Zenith popular worldwide, especially in the dynamically developing watchmaking market of Asia and the Middle East. Zenith maintains its integrity and the feeling of exclusivity – thanks in part to its limited production runs. Also, the brand is not only about chronographs but offers a wide range of watchmaking complications, such as calendars and tourbillons (El Primero Tourbillon in 2004).
Zenith Manufacture’s uncompromising approach to watchmaking and its in-house calibres have made Zenith popular worldwide, especially in the dynamically developing watchmaking market of Asia and the Middle East. Zenith maintains its integrity and the feeling of exclusivity – thanks in part to its limited production runs. Also, the brand is not only about chronographs but offers a wide range of watchmaking complications, such as calendars and tourbillons (El Primero Tourbillon in 2004).
The brand’s history
Zenith was founded in 1865 by young watchmaker Georges Favre-Jacot in the Swiss town of Le Locle, where watches are manufactured in the traditional way to this day. Favre-Jacot registered the trademark “PILOTe” (later on “PILOT”) for pilot watches as early as 1888. Zenith remains the only brand that can carry “PILOT” on its dials.Precise chronographs have become the symbol of Zenith, owing especially to its ground-breaking chronograph El Primero, introduced in 1969, which was the first high-frequency chronograph with a user-friendly self-winding (automatic) mechanism.
El Primero might have been the first miracle of chronometry manufactured by Zenith, but it wasn’t the only one. In the early 1950s, Zenith introduced Calibre 135, which won five Neuchâtel Observatory Awards between 1950 to 1954 for its unprecedented precision. In 2022, Zenith paid homage to Calibre 135 with a limited edition of eleven 135-Observatoire timepieces with a calibre 135, which were hand-decorated and finished by the acclaimed independent watchmaker Kari Voutilainen.
In the 1970s, Zenith succeeded in surviving the quartz crisis (the advent of quartz watches that largely replaced mechanical watches). Thanks to the fact that watchmaker Charles Vermont’s technical drawings and machines needed for the production of El Primero had been preserved, Zenith was able to start working on its great comeback in the 1990s. In 1994 Zenith introduced the Chronomaster collection, which has become the flagship for the El Primero watch movement. In 1994 Zenith joined the LVMH Group owned by Bernard Arnault, currently the richest man in the world.
Under the leadership of CEO Julien Tornare, Zenith – whose pocket watches were brought to fame, among others, by Mahatma Gandhi (a Zenith watch was one of his few material possessions) – improved its market position, thanks both to the Chronomaster collection and its very contemporary DEFY and PILOT collections, introduced in 2023. In January 2024, Benoit de Clerck, a manager experienced in the world of watchmaking, became Zenith’s new CEO.
Under the leadership of CEO Julien Tornare, Zenith – whose pocket watches were brought to fame, among others, by Mahatma Gandhi (a Zenith watch was one of his few material possessions) – improved its market position, thanks both to the Chronomaster collection and its very contemporary DEFY and PILOT collections, introduced in 2023. In January 2024, Benoit de Clerck, a manager experienced in the world of watchmaking, became Zenith’s new CEO.