How gratifying: After ex-CEO Thierry Nataf was responsible for years of bizarre design ideas and excessive prices, under the leadership of Jean-Frederique Dufour, Zenith returned to its traditional values – tradition, sophisticated watchmaking, and a realistic price-performance relationship. Representative of this development is the El Primero Captain shown here. According to information from the European representatives of the LVMH Group (Louis Vuitton, Moet, Hennessy), this model is enormously popular in Germany.
Here, tradition-conscious Zenith fans will find what they long missed: a slim, sleek and elegant chronograph. With a diameter of 42 millimeters, the size of the case is contemporary. The caliber 400B movement, whose basic design dates from the ’60s, has not kept pace, however. Zenith unveiled the Caliber 400 in 1969 and proudly called it El Primero. The company ultimately beat out its competitors – Seiko of Japan and the consortium of Heuer, Breitling, and Hamilton Buren by a hair with this movement. At that time men’s wristwatches had a diameter somewhere between 36 and 38 millimeters and the movement was made correspondingly small, ending up at 30 millimeters. It therefore required a movement retaining ring to make up the difference in size between the movement and case.
None of this is apparent to the observer, as it is elegantly hidden by a case back with numerous engravings. Through the window can be seen the movement, whose architecture has lost none of its beauty over the years. And, technically the high-speed oscillator remains something special. The balance amplitude of 36,000 half-oscillations per hour, which Zenith proudly advertises on the watch dial, makes the chronographs accurate to one-tenth of a second.
Purists may criticize the fact that the lack of proportion between the movement and case sizes causes the subdials to be forced into the center. The reply is that Zenith has found a quite appealing solution, modifying the date wheel and moving the date window to the 6 o’clock position. With its applied steel indexes and its symmetry about the longitudinal axis, the dial has a very balanced look. Weighing about 80 grams, the El Primero Captain is comfortably light and therefore manages even with a fine folding clasp on the crocodile leather strap – a true gentleman among chronographs.
The design of the El Primero high-speed oscillator has its origins in the 1960s, but it is still a feast for the eyes in the twenty-first century.
