Zenith

There has been a continuing and passionate debate about which manufacturer developed world’s first self-winding chronograph, amongst the consortium of Heuer, Buren-Hamilton, Breitling, Dubois-Depraz and Seiko. Much of the argument has subsided in recent years, thanks to almost a decade’s tireless documentation by the original sports-chronograph collectors, such as Jeff Stein. According to the latter, Zenith was the first to announce the innovation. Having begun research and development as early as 1962, it debuted a working prototype at a pre-emptive press conference in Switzerland in early 1969. The debate that may never truly be extinguished, but the “El Primero” movement will forever keep its claim as a first. It certainly had a huge impact on horological development. Other than being the first fully-integrated automatic chronograph, the movement was also a pioneer of high-frequency. In 1985, Zenith resurrected the “El Primero” line, reissuing the calibre 3019PHC (as the calibre 40.0), and it is still in production today under the designation “calibre 400”. One of the most widely respected Rolex Daytona references, the 16500, used the base calibre 400 in its re-designed flagship sports watch in 1988.

Zenith

There has been a continuing and passionate debate about which manufacturer developed world’s first self-winding chronograph, amongst the consortium of Heuer, Buren-Hamilton, Breitling, Dubois-Depraz and Seiko. Much of the argument has subsided in recent years, thanks to almost a decade’s tireless documentation by the original sports-chronograph collectors, such as Jeff Stein. According to the latter, Zenith was the first to announce the innovation. Having begun research and development as early as 1962, it debuted a working prototype at a pre-emptive press conference in Switzerland in early 1969. The debate that may never truly be extinguished, but the “El Primero” movement will forever keep its claim as a first. It certainly had a huge impact on horological development. Other than being the first fully-integrated automatic chronograph, the movement was also a pioneer of high-frequency. In 1985, Zenith resurrected the “El Primero” line, reissuing the calibre 3019PHC (as the calibre 40.0), and it is still in production today under the designation “calibre 400”. One of the most widely respected Rolex Daytona references, the 16500, used the base calibre 400 in its re-designed flagship sports watch in 1988.

Zenith

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