Zenith watches are a classic of luxury watchmaking. The star manufacture offers us, year after year, original pieces that incorporate an incomparable design and mechanisms of the highest quality, for people who are looking for a classic but different piece.

On this occasion we review the complete history of Zenith watches and some of the pieces that have enhanced its history.

History of Zenith

Zenith currently belongs to the luxury brand conglomerate Louis Vuitton, known as LVMH, as is the case with many of the classic watch brands, however, the brand has a very long history.

The first Zenith models were launched in 1865 by Georges Favre.Jacot, a watchmaker who, at just 22 years old, opened his first workshop in the mythical Swiss town of Le Locle.

Within ten years the manufacture already had 100 employees and by 1920 it had produced more than 2 million watches for collectors around the world.

Its main milestone came in 1969, when the brand patented “El Primero”, a self-winding chronographic mechanism. Its impact was such that other brands used it, one of the most important models equipped with this movement was the Rolex Daytona.

Unlike other manufacturers, Zenith prides itself on being a "Manufacture d'horlogerie", this means that it only works with movements created by the brand itself.

The name of the brand comes from the highest point that a star reaches in the sky, in Spanish, the zenith, as a symbol of the quality that the brand pursues in each of its manufactures, this is also the origin of its logo, a star.

Another of Zenith's milestones occurred in 1994, when it developed the Elite caliber, an ultra-thin movement chosen Movement of the Year, whose precision tests turned out to be a success from the start.

In terms of design, Zenith was the first manufacturer to open the dial so that the escapement of the caliber is visible, in this way the owner of the watch can see the mechanism beating.

But Zenith is also part of contemporary history. On October 14, 2012, Felix Baumgartner becomes the first person to break the sound barrier in free fall, the watch that accompanies him is the Zenith Stratos Flyback Striking 10th, which incorporates an El Primero mechanism.

Zenith, an exclusive manufacture

When we talk about a manufacture it is important to review the movements, after all these mechanisms are what elevate a watchmaking manufacture to the milestone level.

Zenith only uses movements developed by the brand itself, in fact, throughout its history it has obtained more than 300 patents, all of them developed to seek maximum precision when measuring time, the bodies in charge of measuring watchmaking precision say so. have recognized, since Zenith has more than 2,300 chronometry awards.

When we talk about Zenith watch movements we have to highlight El Primero, created in 1969 to become the first automatic integrated chronograph in history. and that it is capable of generating 36,000 alternations per hour.

40 years have passed and still today El Primero is the most accurate serial chronograph in the world.

Zenith movements feature more than 600 variations. Among its most current watchmaking devices, it is worth highlighting the Gravity Control gyroscopic movement, a more precise mechanism than the tourbillon, since it keeps the escapement in a horizontal position permanently, canceling the effect of gravity on the mechanism.

The Elite caliber is also a registered trademark of the Le Locle Manufacture. Elite was a revolution for two reasons: it became the first caliber developed by computer, back in 1994, and it also managed to integrate all the complications into an extremely flat movement.

Zenith Classic Collections