Zenith Chronomaster El Primero

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 24.2041.400/21.R576, measures 42mm in black ceramic-coated aluminum with dual pump pushers, a signed crown, a smooth bezel, and a sapphire crystal. Its matte black dial features an outer black tachymeter scale with white printing, an inner white minute track with applied indices flanking a white 1/5th-seconds track, a triple-register chronograph display with silvered totalizers, a luminous 'baton' handset with a red-tipped chronograph seconds hand, and a date window at 6 o'clock. Powered by the automatic Zenith El Primero Calibre 400B column-wheel movement with 5 Hz beat rate visible via a sapphire caseback, the watch comes paired to a perforated black rubber strap with a ceramized aluminum pin buckle. Sporty and cool in its 'reverse panda' guise, this hi-beat chronograph is the ultimate city slicker's daily driver. (And did we mention it comes with its original kit, too?)