I met with a fellow OTD’er just yesterday and we touched on this bold move by Zenith, buying back some of that lost heritage. The Zenith story is rather tragic and the brand suffered miserably through the quartz crisis. Now they are producing some fine pieces and many have their roots firmly in the brands golden age of the late 60’s and early 70’s.

Zenith doesn’t have the heritage and marketability of an early Formula 1 connection like Heuer but what they do have is the El Primero. The DNA of the original tri-colour A386 is evident in many of the new products and for good reason. It’s a beautiful watch aesthetically with a movement to match – the El Primero 3019 PHC automatic chronograph that was a marvel in its day. (I wont go into the story of who produced the first automatic chronograph movement but lets just say that this is or was a contender for 1st prize).

Tag Heuer have had great success with their Monaco line so I am not surprised that Zenith, who happens to be a sister company of Tag Heuer in the LVMH Group, are following suit and making the most of their El Primero heritage both in design and marketing terms. Vintage pieces had pride of place on their stand at Basel and I have read on TZ-UK that these vintage pieces are travelling the UK on a bit of a marketing tour via the retailers. Now they have acquired a rare prototype at a high profile auction and got us all talking about it. Can’t be a bad thing for the brand and it’s a formula that has work well for their sister company and I’m sure other Swiss watchmakers.

As to the watch, it’s certainly interesting but lacks the finesse of my favourite Zenith, the A386. I have four vintage Zenith watches, two A386’s and two so called Sub Sea and I’m not particularly keen on the rest. Some of the cases and dial/case combination make me wonder who the designers were in the 70’s or more particularly, what they were on. It sure was an interesting time and certainly the last decade when there was so much originality in the design world.

regards
Paul
www.heuerworld.com