The Revival version, nicknamed “Shadow,” retains the period-appropriate 37-mm case size of its predecessor (the same case configuration as the A384) but replaces the black-coated steel with dark matte-gray microblasted titanium.

The unconventional model got a new lease on life last year when Zenith - in its thorough search of the secret, walled-off attic where Charles Vermot (more on him here) stashed the parts and documents that preserved the El Primero through the Quartz Crisis - discovered one of the nearly forgotten prototypes. Even official Zenith records of the prototype are scarce, and only a handful of longtime employees even were aware it existed. Only a handful were actually made, and none actually made it to market.

One year after releasing the storied, steel-cased Reference A384, the first watch containing the self-winding El Primero, Zenith developed another chronograph, this one with a manual-winding movement, whose case was made of blackened steel, a rarity in that era. This year, the manufacture follows up that mega-popular vintage re-edition with the Chronomaster Revival “Shadow” - the modern reissue of a rare, legendary prototype that has languished in secrecy and obscurity since 1970. Its advanced design is credited with saving Zenith in the 1980s when the brand was struggling to recover from the effects of the quartz crisis - the industry upheaval caused by the move to quartz watches.Īfter its takeover by its namesake, the American electronics producer The Zenith Radio Corporation in 1971, the new management ordered the disposal of the tooling required to produce the El Primero - but, according to lore, employee Charles Vermot squirrelled away the equipment in the factory attic where it remained for a decade before being brought back into use when mechanical watchmaking underwent its renaissance.įrom 1988 until 2002, El Primero movements were supplied to Rolex which modified them for use in its Cosmograph Daytona model - orders that helped to keep Zenith alive prior to its purchase and reinvigoration by the LVMH group 20 years ago.Zenith’s history-making El Primero chronograph caliber famously marked its 50th anniversary in 2019, debuting a number of historically inspired timepieces, including a revival of the very first El Primero watch from 1969. The El Primero is available in 23 versions (all based on the original).

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