Sell at Auction with Phillips
We are inviting consignment submissions for Zenith
Zenith
Swiss • b. 1865
Biography
Since Zenith's beginnings, founder George Favre-Jacot sought to manufacture precision timepieces, realizing quality control was best maintained when production was housed under one roof. Zenith remains one of the few Swiss manufacturers to produce their own in-house movements to this day.
Today, the brand is best known for the "El Primero," the firm's most successful automatic chronograph movement. In an interesting twist of fate, the company that owned Zenith during the 1970s decided to move on to quartz movements and therefore sought to destroy the parts and tools necessary to make mechanical movements. One watchmaker realized this folly and hid the tools and parts before they were destroyed. In 1984, he returned them to Zenith so they could once again make the El Primero movement.
Insights
Early self-winding Rolex Cosmograph Daytonas made from 1988 through 2000 used modified movements based on Zenith's El-Primero.
"Zenith remains one of the few Swiss manufacturers to produce their own in-house movements since its earliest days."