ZENITH

Zenith traces its roots to 1865 and a surprisingly young founder, 22-year-old Georges Favre-Jacot. It was one of the first watch maisons to integrate all aspects of the watchmaking process under one roof, from case manufacturing to movement production to final casing and assembly, Zenith has long prided itself on its quest for timekeeping precision, earning a record number of chronometry prizes over the years, and its most influential contribution to watchmaking history is the El Primero chronograph caliber, released in 1969 as the first chronograph movement with automatic winding. (Learn more about El Primero here.) This foundational achievement for the brand helped it survive through the Quartz Crisis years and into the recent revival of the luxury mechanical watch. Zenith has built much of its modern collection around the El Primero and its simpler offshoot, the Elite, and since the caliber’s 50th anniversary in 2019 it has heavily relied on some of those now-iconic and collectible El Primero watches to guide the growth of its core Chronomaster and Defy collections. Less renowned but just as distinct are Zenith’s Pilot Type 20 models, some of the most period-appropriate early 20th-century aviation watches you’ll find on the market today.

Founded: 1865

Headquarters: Le Locle, Switzerland

Ownership: LVMH Group

Notable models: Chronomaster, Defy, Pilot Type 20

Did you know: The El Primero caliber was nearly consigned to the dustbin of history when another Zenith company, the one that made TVs and radios, took over the watch company in the 1970s and decreed that all mechanical watch movements be destroyed and replaced with quartz.