Timepieces Trade Market

Zenith : History

In Le Locle, where the small world of Switzerland seems to come to an abrupt end where the mountains crowd together and France is just a stone's throw away, a watchmaker called Georges Favre-Jacot took his first steps towards professional independence in 1865.
His goal : the rational and low-cost production of pocket-watches of the best possible accuracy.
It turned out well, for one third of Le Locle’s workforce were in Favre-Jacot's employ within 10 years of the start of his business.
In 1896, the by-now respected industrialist won a coveted gold medal at the Swiss National Exhibition.
In 1903 he was awarded first prize at the Neuchâtel Observatory timing contest.
Today the business successors of Favre-Jacot can look back on more than 1.500 observatory prizes, medals and other international awards.
In 1911, when the boss retired, his immediate successors launched the Zénith brand name.
Georges Favre-Jacot died in 1917.
His world had been the world of the pocket-watch.
However, it was still in his lifetime that Zénith introduced the world's first alarm wristwatch.
At that time, Zénith also started making chronographs.
The first, in wristwatch cases still heavily inspired by pocket-watch styles, date from the 1920s.
Later Zénith wrist-chronographs were fitted with Excelsior Park movements.
In 1960, Zénith acquired the Martel Watch Co.
Sometime in the thirties, Martel had developed a chronograph movement for Universal Genève.
With the takeover of Martel Watch, the caliber 749 - or the Universal 285 - became the Zénith caliber 146 family.
Also interesting are the "Cronometro Tipo CP 2" pilots' chronographs with an antimagnetic inner case and a rotating bezel graduated in 60 minutes, made for A. Cairelli of Rome in the early seventies.
In 1954, Zénith set the timing record in the "wrist-chronometer" category to win the Neuchâtel Observatory's prize for series-produced watches.
The movement it entered was the celebrated caliber 135.
Eleven thousand of these hand-wound movements left the Le Locle workshops from 1948 to 1962, many of them with an official chronometer certificate.
Those interested in form-movements and automatic calibers will also be rewarded at Zénith.
In 1969 the company introduced the first ever automatic chronograph with a central winding rotor.
Its high balance-frequency (36.000 v / h) meant that the column-wheel caliber 3019 PHC could be stopped to register times to the nearest tenth of a second.
Production was resumed in the eighties after a break lasting several years.
Also in 1969 Zénith became part of the "Mondia-Zénith-Movado" holding company, in which the American Zénith Radio Corporation acquired a majority in 1971.
Seven years later, the group returned to Swiss ownership with the finance and engineering group, Dixi, as the new majority shareholder.
Since 1984, when Movado was bought out by the North American Watch Co., the name Zénith has stood alone on the dial.
In addition to the "El Primero" chronographs of 1969, Zénith manufactures its own range of automatics, called the "Class 6".