Zenith – A star that never burns out
Hard to believe, but the Swiss company Zenith has been involved in the luxury watch business for over 150 years. As a result, the well-known watchmakers are among the very old hands of the industry – and they can be really proud of that. Especially in recent times, competition on the watch market has continued to increase. Year after year, long-established comrades-in-arms and “newcomers” position themselves and fight for the favour of watch fans. The supply is booming and some people may lose the overview. The market is supersaturated – but Zenith is known. But the brand holds its own – and rightly so, as we believe. Looking back on Zenith’s long success story, it becomes clear that this manufacturer is not just any brand – there is a whole piece of watch history and tradition in this company. In the following we will give you an insight into the impressive world of Zenith watchmaking.
From Dream to Success – A Swiss revolutionizes the watch world
Zenith was founded in 1865 under the name of its owner Georges Favre-Jacot. The Swiss’s vision was to produce the most precise and at the same time most reliable timepieces in the world and thus to shape the art of watchmaking in the long term. And he actually succeeded in doing so. For the construction of the highly complex mechanisms required for his noble watches, the workers could no longer operate independently of one another in separate small workshops. The consequence? Favre-Jacot simply had large buildings built in which the various professions could work together – the birth of the very first watch manufactory. In this way, thanks to Favre-Jacot, it became possible to produce timepieces completely in our own factory – which made the high quality of our esteemed luxury watches possible in the first place!
The merger of the entire production process was therefore a huge step in watch history. Favre-Jacot’s innovation was revolutionary at the time and therefore quickly made the rounds – as a result, the general interest and demand for his watches boomed all over the world. In order to produce all the pieces and satisfy his customers with the best quality, however, the visionary had to come up with some innovative machines and production methods – he realized this, among other things, by guaranteeing a long lifetime of his masterpieces using interchangeable elements and automating some of the work steps. Here, too, he was the pioneer of the market with his self-developed concepts – a pretty clever mind. Zenith has been the name of the “Favre-Jacot Manufactory” since 1911, and the highest point of the firmament served as inspiration for the unusual name, by the way, as a sign of the excellence of the “brand with the star”. The company was also known in the area as the “Manufactory with 2,000 golden and silver hands”, an expression of the high level of expertise of Favre-Jaqot’s skilled workers.
A cream of the crop – Zenith has always been the leader when it comes to prices
Zenith’s successful beginning marks only part of the company’s impressive history. The brand is the winner of the year – almost every year! Here is a brief overview of the most important awards and achievements Zenith can boast of:
1948: The legendary caliber 135 wristwatch movement with a small second and an average of only 29.3 mm appears and is awarded 235 (!) prizes.
1960: The 5011 K calibre set a new precision record in its category. It was used for marine chronometers, pocket and table clocks, as well as a special edition of the Pilot Montre d’Aéronef Type 20.
1969: The very first integrated automatic chronograph, El Primero, was launched on the market. To this day, this is the most precise serial movement in the world. Thanks to a frequency of 36,000 vibrations per hour, short times can be measured with an accuracy of up to a tenth of a second.
1994: The first Elite automatic movement with computer-aided design (CAD) is presented and voted “Movement of the Year” by the press for its extreme flatness, robustness and reliability.
2003: The brand with the star invents the Open concept, an opening in the dial that reveals the escapement of the El Primero calibre. You can see the beating heart of the watch and the fascination of a mechanical high-frequency movement unfolds its effect more than ever.
2010: The Academy Christoph Colomb Equation of Time model wins the prize for the best major complication at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) – one year later the model wins the prize again!
2012: This time another model wins an award at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève: The Pilot Big Date Special receives the “Petite Aiguille” award. On 14 October Zenith also makes history with the Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner, who is the first person to break the sound barrier in free fall. He jumps out of a space capsule at the edge of the stratosphere from a height of over 38,969 metres. Zenith is the official timekeeper at this attraction: Baumgartner wears a Stratos Flyback Striking 10th with Zenith’s world-famous El Primero movement.
2013: The prize for the best sports watch at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève goes to the Chronomaster El Primero Stratos Flyback Striking 10th, which has had a lasting influence not only on precision but also on design on the watch market. One year later, the lightweight version of the model was once again voted the best sports watch.
2015: The company celebrates its 150th anniversary with a special edition of the El Primero limited to 150 copies, which also celebrates its 150th anniversary.
2017: Zenith revolutionizes the watch world once again with the Defy El Primero 21. The model enables mechanical time measurement with an accuracy of 1/100 of a second, redefining precision and reliability. In addition, the Defy Lab is introduced, which takes mechanical time measurement to a new level. The watch comes with a new narrow mono-crystalline silicon regulator that is insensitive to magnetic fields, gravity and temperature fluctuations. With this process, Zenith competes strongly with the current coil spring. The case of the Defy Lab is also made of Aeronith, the lightest aluminium composite in the world, a second world premiere in this watch. The incredible precision of the Defy Lab is unique in the industry. This makes the model a triple pioneer on the market and marks a completely new approach to the design and innovation of mechanical watches. No wonder that Defy Lab has won this year’s Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève Innovation Prize!
Last year’s latest model developments are the best example that Zenith’s inventive spirit has not waned even after 150 years and that the company only knows one way forward. Since its foundation, the Swiss have decisively guided and shaped the development of the watch world. They will certainly continue to be an important guide in the future. We are looking forward to further Ohs and Ahs at the presentation of the latest innovations from Zenith!
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