![]() ![]() Luckily, Charles Vermot, the Zenith watchmaker in charge of the El Primero chronograph movement, disagreed with this decision, still believing that mechanical watchmaking had a future. Then in 1976, the management of Zenith ordered that the presses and the tools required to manufacture the movement should be sold to the highest bidder. ![]() After that Zenith went on to produce several references, all of them utilizing the El Primero movement, ranging from the first-ever El Primero with the reference A384 to the A385 and the A385, which were the last El Primero’s that were produced before the Quartz crisis hit in the 1960s and 1970s. So, they went on to rename the movement to “El Primero”, which means “the first” in Spanish. Zenith gave this project the codename 3019 PHC but soon figured out that this name won’t do them any good when it comes to their marketing. Let’s fast forward to the 10th of January 1969, when Zenith announced the first fully integrated, high-frequency, automatic chronograph movement at a press conference. And that didn’t change much over the span of the next few decades, as Zenith went on to win many more competitions achieving the impressive record of more than 2,300 prizes for their timepieces. Was a difficult riddle, wasn’t it? After its foundation, Zenith quickly earned the reputation of making the most precise timepieces at that time. And can you guess what the name of his company was? Exactly, Zenith. ![]() At that time, in a small swiss village with the sounding name Le Locle, a swiss guy named Georges Favre-Jacot, decided to found a watch manufacturing company. Let’s turn back the time all the way to 1865. Not saying that is the case today, but let’s wait a few years and see again. In my humble opinion, the Chronomaster has the potential to be one of the most iconic watches from Zenith. You get a classic design and a very nice movement for a competitive price. Overall, I think that the Zenith Chronomaster Sport is a great watch. The Chronomaster Sport has some sort of resemblance to the Rolex Daytona – exactly how close the resemblance is, and whether the proximity is problematic, I will cover in one of the following paragraphs. Just a side note, but worth mentioning would be something that the attentive observer has surely already noticed. By the way, did you know that the new movement has 311 components inside of it? This is what makes manufacturing the watch that time, labor, and cost-intensive and that on the other hand explains the proud starting price of $9,500. Image credits: ZenithĪs many of you know, the Zenith Chronomaster Sport is powered by a new movement: the automatic caliber 3600, which takes advantage of modern materials and manufacturing processes, and offers improved functionality, like the water-resistance of 100 meters and the increased power reserve of 60 hours. With its overlapping sub-dials and the iconic El-Primero color scheme that dates back to the 1960s, the dial of the new Chronomaster Sport draws from a well-established Zenith-typical design vocabulary. But the real star of the show is the dial. Complementing the sporty-looking case is the polished black ceramic bezel, which looks absolutely stunning. But if I had to choose one for the stainless-steel options, I would go for that sweet bracelet, which together with the case, makes for one harmonic piece. All of those options look great in combination with the case, the bezel, and the dial. But hey, that’s a good thing, right? Speaking of good things, the Chronomaster Sport is available either on a stainless-steel bracelet, black or blue rubber strap, or a black leather strap. All the different variants are built exactly the same, each of them measuring 41mm in diameter, 13.6mm in height, and just around 46.2mm from log to lug, which honestly, is less than I imagined. One in stainless steel with a crisp white dial and a black ceramic bezel, one also in stainless steel but with a black dial and a black ceramic bezel, and the last one is made from Rose Gold but features the same black ceramic bezel. The new Chronomaster Sport is available in three different variants. ![]()
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