Beauty & Style | Wednesday 8 July, 2015 1:26 am |

CELEBRATING 150 YEARS!

 

For 2015, Zenith is an important year in that the brand with the guiding star is celebrating its 150th anniversary. A milestone providing an ideal occasion on which to take a panoramic look back across its history, the revolutions it has created and the feats it has accompanied. Also an opportunity to recall that none of this would have been possible without the talent and skill of the true creators of its watches – the artisans exercising every conceivable speciality – nor without the enterprising spirit cherished by the Manufacture since its beginnings. A spirit based on the founding values of daring, authenticity and pleasure that are more than ever in tune with the times.

 

 

ZENITH : ALWAYS ONE STEP AHEAD

 

1865 in Le Locle, a small village in the Neuchâtel mountains of Switzerland. Georges Favre-Jacot, a young man barely 22 years of age, set up his own watchmaking workshop. His aim was to create complete watches in an era when movement components were made by scattered and isolated artisans. The future entrepreneur invented a landmark concept by regrouping the region’s many talents under one roof. This enabled him to incorporate a foundry, rolling-mills and stamping machines, as well as case- and dial-making. In parallel, he created the principle of components that were interchangeable between various movements. One of the first industrial watch manufacturing facilities in the modern sense of the term was born. A Manufacture that the tirelessly innovative founder would do his utmost to develop on an international scale.

 

A WHOLE PLANET TO BE DISCOVERED…

 

The second half of the 19th century brought considerable progress in the domain of transport, making journeys slightly less tedious and not quite so long. From 1870 onwards, George Favre-Jacot began traveling on foot as well as by train, car and boat around the world – and notably to Russia – for the purpose of selling his watches. As of 1900, he entrusted his nephew and son-in-law Jämes Favre with touring the markets – Europe, China, Manchuria, Japan, North and South America, the Philippines, British India and the Dutch East Indies – in order to evaluate their profitability and their development potential. Zenith thereby developed one of the watch industry’s earliest distribution networks. Subsequently, various commercial contracts, especially with railway and airline companies, substantially fostered the brand’s global reach.

 

FRIENDS PAST AND PRESENT

 

A loyal partner in countless challenges for the past 150 years, Zenith has consistently been right there alongside those who constantly push back human limits. Whether in accompanying the early days of aviation at the start of the 20th century with Louis Blériot, imparting the cadence for the travels and prayers of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, freefalling from the stratosphere with Felix Baumgartner, sailing on a giant trimaran with the Spindrift racing team, delivering standout performances on stage with The Rolling Stones, or racing on Europe’s most prestigious tracks at the wheel of classic cars: the interaction with these daring individuals has always been embedded in the very genes of the Manufacture.

 

THE ALL-CONQUERING SPIRIT

 

The only true conquerors are front-runners who display a daring approach. Zenith’s enterprising spirit and the innovation that has always stemmed from it go hand in hand with the conquests it has accompanied. Whether on land, in the air or at sea, the Manufacture was involved in the technological breakthroughs and the challenges taken up by the heroes of its time throughout the 20th century. In the air, one such pioneer was Marcel-Georges Brindejonc des Moulinais, who became the first pilot to fly from Paris to Warsaw. On land, Zenith was sucessively appointed from 1910 onwards official suppplier to the US army, the Swiss postal service as well as a number of national railway companies. At sea, Zenith quickly earned a reputation for its onboard instruments and marine chronometers. Thanks to the Defy watch line boasting water resistance to 600 metres, the Manufacture from Le Locle made a noteworthy entrance into the world of subaquatic exploration.

 

CHRONOMETRY : AIMING FOR PERFECTION

 

Zenith soon became involved in the race for precision, to the point of making it an immutable quality objective extending beyond its participation in competitions. Between 1903 and 1968 (the year the last chronometry competition of the era was held), Zenith won prestigious prizes for the excellence of its calibres, filed more than 300 patents and created legendary calibres interpreted in over 600 different versions. Among them were Calibre 5011-O, which won the absolute precision record in the Pocket Chronometer with spring balance category (1967); the famous Calibre 135, which earned 235 chronometry prizes from 1949 onwards; the legendary El Primero (1969), the world’s first integrated chronograph; and the Elite (1994), an ultra-thin automatic movement and the first calibre from the Manufacture to be developed using computer-assisted design technology. The Elite movement, which has since then served to power a number of different models, was voted movement of the year in 1994.

 

HAUTE HORLOGERIE ACCORDING TO ZENITH

 

Zenith has consistently displayed outstanding expertise in the development and production of exceptional models, with one particularly striking recent example being the Academy Christophe Colomb Hurricane and its self-regulating gyroscopic module. Named Gravity Control, the latter serves to maintain the regulating organ in a horizontal position however the watch is tilted, so as to generate the best possible precision. The movement – an El Primero – is also equipped with fusée and chain transmission compensating for the variations in the force of the barrel as the latter unwinds. Five years of research, 939 components of which 354 for the calibre, 173 for the Gravity Control module and 575 for the fusée and chain transmission: the Academy Christophe Colomb Hurricane enables Zenith to provide a definitive solution to the effects of gravity on a watch’s smooth operation. And also to establish itself as a major actor on the contemporary Haute Horlogerie scene.

 

A BIG REVOLUTION IN A SMALL WORLD…

 

On January 10th 1969, Zenith staged the worldwide launch of its automatic El Primero calibre. This world-first movement was equipped with an integrated chronograph – rather than an additional module – equipped with a column wheel and beating at the high frequency of 36,000 vibrations per hour ensuring tenth-of-a-second precision. The El Primero calibre soon became a legend and now, almost 40 years since its launch, remains unrivalled in the realm of precision. While it continues to drive Zenith timepieces, such as the El Primero Chronomaster 1969 anniversary model, it has constantly evolved over the years and been enriched with various horological complications as well as avant-garde mechanisms that have earned it many distinctions. Its various interpretations, each contributing to the advancement of time measurement, are now part of a complete collection bearing its name.

 

ELEGANCE AND THE ART OF WATCHMAKING

 

Zenith has always been a Manufacture attuned to its times. From the start of the 20th century, it began cooperating with artists of the Art Nouveau movement, and from 1925, with proponents of Art Deco. These partnerships encompassed its watch models as well as its advertising and image. Likewise, the Manufacture naturally expressed its love for women, to the extent that at one point in its history it was actually producing more ladies’ than men’s models. These feminine timepieces were of course also imbued with daring and authenticity: from the pocket watches of the early decades, through pendant jewellery watches and on to the complicated wristwatches of the modern era, Zenith has always regarded ladies’ watches as an anthem to femininity, an ongoing romance regularly nurtured by new “declarations of love” and a timeless affirmation admirably embodied in the Star 33 mm collection.

 

TO THE NEXT 150 YEARS !

 

While 150 years undoubtedly represent an exceptional slice of history that is well worth celebrating, nostalgia has no place at the Manufacture Zenith, which continues to write history. The daring attitude and the enterprising spirit cherished by the brand with the guiding star are conveyed through new territories to be conquered, fresh chapters to be written, as well as new struggles in which to engage. As a partner of Tour Auto Optic 2000, Zenith has become official timekeeper of historical car races on Europe’s most prestigious tracks. It also partners with French footballer Eric Abidal and his foundation for children struck by cancer. The upcoming years will be marked on the one hand by a determination to focus on the brand’s expertise, and on the other by a commitment to live in step with its times by creating daring and highly contemporary watches.