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The Encyclopedia of Horology

Le Locle, Switzerland

Zenith

Verified

Integrated manufacture of pocket watches, chronographs and high-frequency automatic movements

History

Favre-Jacot gathered the separate trades of watchmaking under one roof at Le Locle, and the firm became known for precision pocket watches, observatory competition results and the high-frequency automatic chronograph introduced in 1969.

Major innovations

  • El Primero automatic chronograph running at 36,000 vibrations per hour
  • Early integration of all production stages in one factory

Known markings

  • 'Zenith' with the star device
  • Calibre marking on the movement

Serial numbers

Movement numbers are recorded in company archives, which can supply extracts for individual watches.

Collecting significance

El Primero chronographs and precision pocket watches attract the most attention; original chronograph parts are increasingly difficult to source.

Photographs

Zenith pocket watch inside
Zenith pocket watch inside — Prunk, Public domain. Wikimedia Commons file page
Vintage Zenith Men's Electronic Quartz Wrist Watch With Red LED Display, Swiss-Made (13037228685)
Vintage Zenith Men's Electronic Quartz Wrist Watch With Red LED Display, Swiss-Made (13037228685) — Joe Haupt from USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. Wikimedia Commons file page
Zenith-watch-el36000
Zenith-watch-el36000 — Hiroaki Kikuchi, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons file page

Photographs are illustrative examples of the type, not necessarily the exact object described. Verify details against the source file page.

Sources & references

  1. Zenith heritage publications
  2. Accounts of the survival of El Primero tooling in the 1970s differ in detail between retellings.

Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.