Zenith – the history of the legendary watch manufacture and its heroes.
Among the manufacturers of luxury watches, a special place today belongs to Zenith – a famous and renowned European brand. The formation of this Swiss company took place in 1865. But the point here is not only that it is one of the oldest. The brand today does not stop developing new technologies to produce the most advanced mechanisms.
The founder of the production of Zenith wristwatches was Georges Favre-Jacot. A watch enthusiast, inspired by the idea of creating an ideal watch. At the age of 22, he possessed such knowledge in the field that was unknown even to experienced craftsmen. He was distinguished by courage, breadth of thinking, high ambitions and determination.
In the spacious workshops that he organized, specialists had the opportunity to solve problems collectively, thanks to which mechanisms with perfectly adjusted parts were created. He
gathered all kinds of watch specialists and built a real watch empire. Incredibly, 10 years later, about a third of the inhabitants of Le Locle were employed at his factory.
Shortly before his death, Georges Jacot came up with the idea of renaming the Georges Favre-Jacot company into what would later become the legendary Zenith. The creator of this brand passed away in 1917, unfortunately, he did not live to see the main rise of the brand, which happened much later.
Real fame came to Zenith in 1969, when the world’s first automatic chronograph El Primero was presented. The history of watchmaking knows few revolutionary achievements like this one. The El Primero mechanism was able to perform 10 oscillations per second or 36,000 semi-oscillations per hour – this record has not been broken to this day.
Ultra-thin chronometers became the next high-profile achievement of the company. In total, Zenith has been awarded more than 1,500 times during its existence.
This Swiss brand can boast that its workshops have established a complete watch production from the project to the finished model. The birth of the product is preceded by a nine-month production cycle, when the design is thought out, the mechanism is created, and tests are carried out. About eighty people, and these are designers, watchmakers, engineers, inventors and researchers, work on each product!
Zenith is inspired to new achievements by the lives of great people who preferred this brand to all others. Perhaps you do not know that Mahatma Gandhi never parted with his Zenith pocket watch. This unique piece was sold in 2009 in New York at auction for two million dollars. Prince Albert I of Monaco also had a Zenith watch. Among the admirers of the brand was Roald Amundsen, who made trips to the North and South Poles.
The El Primero Stratos Flyback Striking 10th chronograph broke the sound barrier with Felix Baumgartner, who jumped from the stratosphere. This was the first time a watch broke the sound barrier in the high layers of the atmosphere near space.
At the dawn of aviation, Zenith onboard instruments witnessed outstanding human achievements, such as the flight of the French pilot Louis Bleriot across the English Channel in 1909.
Another daring experiment was carried out with the participation of aviation. The El Primero watch was attached to the chassis of a Boeing 707 before the Paris-New York flight. During the flight, the mechanism was subjected to colossal overloads: temperature and pressure changes, plus constant shaking. However, at the end of the journey, its readings were as accurate as at the starting point. A stable 36,000 vibrations per hour and not an iota more or less!
For many decades, the Zenith brand has been a source of pride and admiration for its creators and owners. Precision, perfection in all details and meanings, durability – these are the three pillars on which Zenith stands reliably and steadily. Surprisingly, there have been no falls in its history, only calm and confident movement forward towards its goals.
