About Zenith

 

Zenith traces its history to 1843, making it one of the oldest Swiss watch manufacturers. Zenith is best known for the high beat El Primero movement - revolutionary when first created, and still powering some of the finest watches ever produced. Please join us as we discuss Zenith.

 

1865 - Georges-Emile Favre-Bulle founds "Georges Favre-Jacot & Cie." From the beginning, he uses standardized interchangeable parts for his watches and aims at high precision.

 

1875 - Ten years after the company was founded, it employs one third of the working population of Le Locle.

 

1896 - The company is awarded a Gold Medal at the Swiss National Fair in Geneva.

 

1900 - The movement named "Zenith" (It called, "Terminus" before) gave the name to all products of George Favre-Jacot & Cie. in the early 20th century.

 

1900 - The company wins a Gold Medal at the World Fair in Paris.

 

1903 - First prize in a precision contest of the Neuenburg observatory.

 

1908 - Branch office in Moscow (Other branch offices: Paris 1909, Vienna 1910, London 1914, New York 1926). The Italian State Railways buy 8,500 Zenith watches for their employees.

 

1909 - Zenith watch sets a new precision record at the Neuenburg observatory with 22.8 points. The previous record had been 19.9 points.

1910, another Zenith watch even tops this result with a new record of 24.3 points.

 

1911 - At the age of 67, Georges Favre-Bulle retires. The company is renamed to "Fabrique des Montres Zenith”

 

1915 - Zenith produces the first wristwatches.

 

1917 - Georges-Emile Favre-Bulle dies on May 19 at the age of 73.

 

1929 - In a precision contest of the Kew Observatory (England), a Zenith watch wins the first prize (among 19,835 watches from all over the world) with a daily rate of 0.6 seconds.

 

1967 - The 22''' pocket watch caliber 5011 K, introduced in 1960, sets a new - and still valid! - record for precision in its class at the Neuenburg Observatory contest.
To date, Zenith has won 1,565 first prizes in observatory precision contests - this is the world record.