Zenith Watches - Brand Profile for the Masters of Timekeeping

Since the year it was founded, in 1865, Zenith has focused on developing and producing hundreds of movement variations best pilot watch under 500. Georges Favre-Jacot founded the company and at that time Zenith was widely known for creating extremely precise chronometers. The company is located in Switzerland, in the small region of Le Locle.

Since it was first established, the brand earned over 2333 chronometry prizes, being an absolute record holder in the field. In 1969, Zenith created a high-frequency automatic chronograph movement.

The El Primero, as it was named, works at 36,000 vibrations per hour, being the most precise automatic movement in existence.

When the quartz revolution started in the 70's, Charles Vermot was the one who rescued the El Primero movement, which he hid in the factory's attic. Later, in 1984, when automatic movements regained popularity, the El Primero was integrated into numerous fine watches.

The movement was used to produce advanced complications and has been a huge success, mainly due to the fact that it was able to read down to 1/10th of a second. This made every watch based on the El Primero a very precise and exquisite timepiece.

The El Primero is a great calibre in the watch world. It's the only one that, after being developed in 1969, is still used in most watches by Zenith.

The fact that it vibrates at such a high rate, offers it a higher positional accuracy than those of competing 28,800 VPH movements.

In 2012, the El Primero line was topped with a limited edition Stratos Flyback Striking 10th, which was limited to 1,969 pieces, to honour the 1969 release of the movement. This limited edition piece used the same 36,000 vph movement and added a sub-dial which measured tenths of a second, making one complete rotation every ten seconds.

The Academy collection represents the peak of Zenith craftsmanship best pilot watch. There are lots of exclusive models in this collection and countless avant-garde mechanisms, including a gyroscopic module which liberates the watch from the effects of gravity.

The Academy Christophe Colomb Equation du Temps, the one which contains the "Gravity Control" module, won "Best Complicated Watch Prize" in 2011, one of the most highly coveted international award in the watchmaking sector.

Later on, in 2011, Zenith started the Pilot collection, with watch designs which closely resembled those early pilot watches. These oversized timepieces are look great on any wrist, and their precision is second to none.