Featuring a trio of overlapping, galvanic subdials awash in complementary shades of grey and silver, this latest creation looks very much the sibling to our original Zenith collaboration, replete with our usual touch of grey. We began our design process by outfitting our limited edition with a matte salmon opaline dial, providing a dynamic and warm backdrop for the classic Zenith dial configuration. The Chronomaster Original retains the versatility of the original El Primero’s silhouette all while feeling modern and luxurious. Introduced in 2021, the Chronomaster Original instantly recalls the original Zenith A386 of 1969, but with updates that ensure both modernity and lovely fine finishing. This is where the perfectly-sized 38mm x 12.6mm case of the Chronomaster Original came in. Wee wanted to make sure that our collaboration brought out the best of Zenith, and what made us fall in love with the brand in the first place. The task of evolving a classic design is both daunting and exciting. The Zenith Chronomaster Original Limited Edition For Hodinkee is available as a 300-piece limited edition for $9,500 through the HODINKEE Shop and Zenith's own e-commerce platform. The Zenith Chronomaster Original Limited Edition for Hodinkee is a confident evolution of an unimpeachable classic. All of these elements come together to form a modern chronograph that pushes the storied El Primero caliber into a brand new era.
It’s in the wrist-hugging comfort, the angularity of the lugs, and the classic tri-colored subdials.
With the Zenith Chronomaster Original Limited Edition For Hodinkee, all of this history is accounted for. The original El Primero didn't just feature the best automatic chronograph movement of its time, it also had one of the most subtle, comfortable, and well-proportioned cases of the era, and a dial design that still feels fresh. Its very name means "the first," and the El Primero has since become an enduring icon of chronograph design and engineering that has been respectfully reinterpreted over the last half-century. The first El Primero was born in the late 1960s – a brash and tumultuous era for watches. The design of the Zenith Chronomaster Original Limited Edition For Hodinkee, is rooted in Zenith’s rich history. The A386 commands a hefty premium among collectors for its horological import, and with its impressive horological heritage, is certainly worthy of its preeminence.When we sat down with the team at Zenith nearly two years ago, we knew we wanted to create a watch which carefully captured everything we love about Zenith and the El Primero. Another unique feature of this watch is the "ladder" bracelet by Gay Freres. The A386 was hallmarked by its three different-colored sub-registers, a drastic departure from the traditional color schemes of most chronographs of the day, which only used two dominant colors on the dial. The Zenith A386 was the first model to be fitted with the El Primero movement. Zenith was careful to preserve this in the construction of the movement, developing special lubricants to ease the considerable wear on the escapement. This offered significant added accuracy, down to one tenths of a second. Of the three automatic chronograph movements that were released in 1969, only the El Primero was high-beat, meaning that it beat at a rate of 36,000 bph.
Instead, the El Primero would contain a column wheel and a rotor mounted on ball bearings. Furthermore, it would be the first chronograph movement where the construction would fully integrate the chronograph complication, rather than containing it in a module. It would be the first automatic chronograph movement. Although Zenith would overshoot the date by four years, the movement that they produced would break the mold as far as chronograph movements were concerned-both literally and figuratively. The journey to develop the El Primero began in 1962, for a target date of 1965, Zenith's centennial. On the other side were the Swiss, with two camps vying against each other for supremacy: Hamilton, in concert with Heuer, Breitling, Dubois-Depraz, and new Hamilton acquisition, Buren, who would use Buren's Intra-Matic to develop the "Chrono-Matic" (or Caliber 11) under the mysterious title of Project 99. Then there were Zenith and Movado, who'd already made a name for themselves as producers of fine chronographs. Seiko, quietly, without much fanfare, worked on their automatic chronograph, the Caliber 6139. Much like the Space Race, this struggle was international, with watch brands over the world vying to make horological history. In 1969, as the Soviets and the Americans raced to put a man on the moon, watch brands raced to develop the first automatic chronograph movement.
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