In 1865, a 22-year-old watch apprentice named Georges Favre-Jacout launched a watch brand in Le Locle, Switzerland. Whilst this company would not gain the official name of Zenith until 1911,Favre-Jacout’s watch brand showed intimations of a totally different style of timepiece. Back then, timepiece creators worked from a range of places and factories across the city. Watch pieces were then moved from their manufacturing locations to a master watchmaker to finish the process. However, Favre-Jacout was able to bring all of Zenith’s watchmakers together to create the first ever contemporary Manufacture.
This brave choice would go on to provide the basis for Zenith’s technology research and development in its ability to make a range of the globe’s most accurate watches. Zenith brought out its first pocket chronograph in 1899 and throughout the 20th century Zenith’s manufacturing factory got larger and larger. Indeed, the idea was always to reduce the blockage of getting on the ladder of this brand and after the brand got to the extent of its manufacturing abilities with around 50,000 calibres a year, this gave them the opportunity to increase the amount of production and lower prices.
Certainly, yet another key moment in Zenith’s time from last year was the brand CEO, Jean-Frédérique Dufour leaving the brand to go to Rolex, which made it difficult to see if the new company head, Aldo Magada, would be able to continue following this way.
Supposedly, the Zenith Elite is certainly achieving this by reminding us of the sophistication of the brand’s movement capabilities. Indeed, what made the present day Zenith Elite so successful was this commitment to the tradition. This moving forward raises the logical concept of how exactly was Zenith able to develop a new movement so quickly.
Boasting a 100-hour power reserve, Zenith Elite benefits from a double barrel style and an increased power reserve, aside from giving more strength to the watch construction Zenith have focused on ensuring the Elite is one of their thinnest timepieces yet. With a movement hitting around 28,000 vibrations per hour, the Elite shows hours, minutes and seconds, motioning with the seconds indicator from the last production calibre’s 9 o’clock area to a central place where it aids the upholding of the dial’s symmetry.
The case is polished all over with tapered lugs that serve to make this watch wear smaller than it actually is. The primary appeal here is the silver hued face. It is not only cambered, yet this watch also has feuille hands and there is also an intricate feuille style second hand here. With similar leaf shaped hour marker, the details in this watch really shine through to add a layer of total panache to the Elite series.
