When one speaks of great watches, those that time but especially their intrinsic qualities have made immortal in the eyes of enthusiasts and connoisseurs, watches belonging to the Gotha of the world's most important brands such as those generated by the triad come immediately to mind Rolex, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet.
But on the iconographic scale of great watches, timepieces produced by other maisons such as. Omega, IWC, Tudor o Panerai, just to name a few others in no particular order that, while not enjoying absolute planetary success, have left their mark with productions of absolute and equal prominence.
And today the Bonanno Jewelry would like to present to you one of these watches of decidedly absolute value, produced by a company of such caliber as the Zenith and hugely successful, the result of an agreement between the Swiss company itself and the prestigious Phillips Auction House in association with Bacs & Russo: we will talk about the Zenith El Primero Revival Reference A386.
The birth of history.
The story of the Zenith is decidedly exciting, the result of Georges Favre-Jacot 's visionary ability and an intuition of his that today we would perhaps even call trivial but which at the time, in the 1800s, proved revolutionary and successful.
We are in Le Locle, a small town near Neuchatel, so in Switzerland, and our very own Georges Favre-Jacot tries to understand how to get to the point of producing the best watches in the world.
Observing the production chain in his small town but also in neighboring areas, Georges Favre-Jacot realizes that it is at least daring to produce the best mechanism or clock in the world when craftsmen do not work in the same shed.
Not only that. He observes that artisans are scattered in different stores or in their own workshops, but above all, they do not dialogue with each other! How can a product with such a complex mechanism be improved if the person who produces it, in whole or in part, does not compare himself with a colleague of his to produce it better?
It is 1865[1] and, like a true visionary, Georges Favre-Jacot makes a financial commitment both to build large, spacious and bright buildings and to bring together under one roof all the artisans in the area, thus making it possible to control every single piece and the complete mechanism!
Inevitably the results come! The concentration of production in one place sharply advances the whole technique and production chain, thus was born the maison Zenith. Even today that location is still the company's headquarters.
It is the late 1800s and this is the period in which Zenith presents its first chronograph movement. But the new century just around the corner brings with it the progressive growth of industry, and with it soars the importance of precise time measurement, indispensable in the spread of new production techniques.
Yes, industry controls its manufacturing times to the second, the automobile with the internal combustion engine is now in full swing, and, as if that were not enough, the armed forces of the West are increasingly increasing the demand for technical chronographs.
So here are for wristwatches, and not only, antimagnetic and dustproof systems, also telemetric scales to determine the distance to the enemy as well as flyback function for pilots.
The historic El Primero gauge is born!
So, in the late 1960s, while the world economy is booming, the Zenith displaces the world of chronograph measurement by producing an integrated column-wheel automatic chronograph , and he, it is the legendary El Primero caliber: the first mechanical high-frequency series caliber capable of measuring the tenth of a second!
The world of timekeeping is amazed at the perfection of the mechanism and the frequency of its balance, the real secret of this masterpiece. In fact, while all other balances oscillate, at best, at a rate of 8 alternations per second, the El Primero caliber makes 10, always in one second!
It is so mind-blowing that even Rolex, one of the historical competitors of the Zenith, when it launched in 1988 its new, flamboyant Rolex Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona astounding the world, it replaced the historic Valjoux hand-wound caliber precisely with the excellent self-winding Zenith El Primero Chronograph Movement: it is the consecration of the quality, undisputed, of a chronograph that is by far the best industrial Chronograph Movement on the market at that time!
But as in any self-respecting great story, there is always a twist that has the unusually legendary in its plots. It so happens that the Zenith, which thanks to El Primero has meanwhile gained the respect of the watchmaking world and market share even as a supplier to competing firms, nevertheless decides to switch to quartz chronograph movements in the 1970s following an external acquisition that changes the old management and, the corporate mission.
So you decide to destroy the parts and tools needed to perform the mechanical movements of El Primero!
But a watchmaker specializing in chronograph movements and engaged in the production chain of the unparalleled Movement, Charles Vermot, denies himself this reckless act, to say the least, and thus hides the tools necessary for manufacture, as well as components of the chronograph itself before it is all destroyed forever: never was it wiser!
Yes, because in 1984 he returned them to the Zenith so that El Primero could again be reproduced as it had been done 16 years earlier, thus allowing a product that had been feared to be extinct as it had been known to be to the watch world to be restored!
A historic, exhilarating anniversary!
So a great mechanical chronograph Movement and, as we mentioned earlier, a Movement so incredibly effective, clean, infallible in its indication of the passage of time that it deserved something important as its 50th Anniversary approached.
So here it is, almost like a bolt out of the blue, in early fall 2019, the Zenith announces the presentation of a "One-Off" watch , a one-of-a-kind Zenith El Primero Reference A386 revival in platinum.
A unique piece, the first of three models created in collaboration between the prestigious Phillips Auction House in association with Bacs & Russo and the same Zenith: a historic collaboration between a manufacturing house with a major auction house, never happened before!
However, it is on November 9, 2019, during a The Geneva Watch Auction X, that the precious platinum PT 95o jewel, as well as the first of its kind to have a dial with breathtaking Lapis lazuli,[2] sold for 250,000 Swiss Francs![3]
But it doesn't end there! In fact, after the presentation of this unparalleled One-Off, Zenith and Phillips (or rather, the Phillips Watch Department), decided not to stop their collaboration but to continue, even creating two more El Primero Reference Chronographs A386 but, mind you, limiting themselves to 69 pieces in total, again in honor of the year of birth of the El Primero caliber.
At this point, however, a question arose logically: how to reproduce today in a single watch what was historic, beautiful and functional in itself El Primero has expressed over time?
The management of the two companies therefore decided to take a leap, backwards, in time and immerse themselves in the atmosphere of Le Locle in 1969, immersing themselves in the graphic creator and designer of the Zenith of that time.
And the result is first and foremost an extraordinary El Primero yellow gold Reference A386 with a superb black dial with contrasting gold counters: such a striking contrast, beloved in the watch collecting community for its magnificent, clean and incisive look and, although not something original per se, nonetheless different from anything previously from Zenith.
He is joined by a stainless steel version, with a look of color combination typical of high fashion fabrics as well as 1960s home interior design . But there is also to note the quality of the counters, superimposed as in the first Zenith El Primero reference ever.
So, being a limited series, 20 are being produced in yellow gold and 48 in steel, in addition to the One-Off auctioned mentioned above in platinum.
So, it is with great pride that We at Bonanno Jewelry present to you one of the 20 pieces produced in yellow gold.
Let us then identify the strengths of this fantastic watch.
First of all, the fact that this piece of , like its 19 siblings is perfect in its case dimensions as the first product of 1969, thus with a reproduced 38 mm. case in 18 kt. gold and that, another highlight, it has inside it the historic, authentic Automatic Chronograph Movement, mechanical El Primero 400 with column wheel.
And then there are the details, and what details!
We have a yellow gold case with a total diameter of 38 mm. water-resistant, with an aperture diameter of 30.05 mm. and thickness of 12.60 mm. , capable of withstanding the pressure of 5 atmospheres.
The case back and crystal that protect our El Primero A386 Revival in Yellow Gold are made of transparent sapphire crystal, with anti-reflective treatment on both sides but, on the case back, the prestigious Phillips logo appears clearly visible. Moreover, to add a touch of very high style, here is a precious frieze, circularly engraved on the outer case, the one adjacent to the back sapphire crystal, where two dates are visible between two stylized stars: 1969-2019.
The dial, the true centerpiece of this jewel, is lacquered in black with gold-colored counters while, inside, the hour markers are gold-plated, faceted, and coated in beige Super Luminova SLN. The hands are also gold-plated and worked exactly like the indexes described above.
Functions are clearly visible on the dial, clean and very clear. The chronograph has the chronograph hand centrally while the hour counter is located at 6 o 'clock and the 30-minute counter at 3 o'clock. Presence, crisp, of the tachymeter scale and calendar indication at 4:30. Finally, gilded lettering on two levels Zenith- El Primero, below 12 o'clock.
The Movement itself is 30 mm. in diameter, 13 ¼ caliber and 6.6 mm. thick with a total of no less than 278 components, including no less than 31 sapphires. The frequency is the astounding 36,000 VpH balance size at 5 Hz while the power reserve is a minimum of 50 hours.
Finally, the strap is brown calfskin leather with a rubber protection for durability while the pin buckle is yellow gold.
External sources:
[1] http://signoridegliorologi.tgcom24.it/2013/01/11/la-storia-delle-case-zenith/
[2] https://watchilove.com/phillips-in-association-with-bacs-russo-presents-two-exclusive-zenith-el-primero-limited-edition-chronographs-designed-by-phillips
[3] https://www.phillips.com/detail/zenith/CH080219/136
