Similarly, at Zenith, we are known for our three-colored counters, so the three shades of gray that we can see on the three counters in the dial are a nod to our identity, a great meeting point bringing together Zenith and Hodinkee.” It is in Hodinkee’s DNA to play with gray colors, which is very chic. “We are very happy to partner with Hodinkee for this limited edition,” he says, “because it’s one that brings together elements from both of our worlds. For Romain Marietta, product development and heritage director for Zenith, the collab was a particularly fruitful one. It’s a remarkably serene piece of watchmaking that feels both retro and brand new at the same time. The new Hodinkee take on the A386 Chronomaster design-available in a run of 300 pieces-includes a striking matte salmon pink opaline dial in which the three distinctive overlapping sub dials-a hallmark of the El Primero-are picked out in shades of gray to echo the steel of the case and bracelet. "It just represents some of the best watchmaking out there right now." Arguably, it is the most famous movement in watchmaking. These and several other innovations meant that the El Primero, with some more recent modern adjustments, is still able to hold its own more than five decades later.
At just 6.5mm thick, it meant the watches that featured it could be slimmer than traditional chronographs. With a high balance frequency of 36,600 oscillations, it could record times down to one tenth of a second. The El Primero had distinction for many good reasons beyond its first-past-the-post debut. But it was the Monaco-with its Calibre 11 movement and an equally groundbreaking square-shaped case-that got to market first. The El Primero, which debuted in a sporty, monobloc case design (the A386), got its name because, in a neck-and-neck race with Seiko and a separate Swiss multi-brand collaboration that included Heuer, Breitling, Hamilton-Buren, and Dubois-Depraz, Zenith got the word out first, announcing it just under two months before the debut of Heuer’s Monaco. Back then, it was a major breakthrough-the equivalent, for watchmaking, of winning the moon race that raged the same year in the stratosphere.
It’s something that may seem like less than a big deal these days. Introduced in 1969, it was the first automatic chronograph movement. Zenith’s El Primero movement is the gift that keeps on giving.
Welcome to Dialed In, Esquire's weekly column bringing you horological happenings and the most essential news from the watch world since March 2020.
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