Seemingly out of the blue, as it were, we have a new El Primero chronograph to introduce from Zenith, and it comes with a pretty amazing story that builds on the legendary tale of Charles Vermot and the attic of the Zenith manufacture.
As almost anyone who was paying attention to the watch world last year and witnessed the cavalcade of 50th anniversary El Primero launches knows, Vermot, now celebrated as a hero, was the rogue employee who went against his company’s management and stashed away tooling for the El Primero chronograph during the height of the quartz crisis. This act of defiance, which ultimately showed critical foresight, allowed Zenith to be reborn as a modern luxury watch brand.