Zenith history

Zenith history

1865: Founding of the "établissements Georges Favre-Jacot" by 22 year-old Georges Favre-Jacot who develops some
revolutionary construction principles for industrialised movement production, without sacrificing the all-important accuracy of
the watches thus manufactured.
The latter bear the name "Billodes", after the street and district where the factory was located.

1875: Zenith employs one-tenth of the population of Le Locle.

1896: The manufacturer wins a gold medal in the National Exhibition held in Geneva.

1900: Grand Prix award at the Paris World Fair.

1901: First Zenith chronograph.

1903: 1st prize in the Neuchâtel Observatory chronometry competition.

1908: Georges Favre-Jacot opens a subsidiary company in Moscow.

1911: The company is renamed "Zenith", after a mechanical movement renowned at the time for its accuracy. 67 year-old
Georges Favre-Jacot hands over the reins to his nephew, James Favre, leaving a watchmaking empire encompassing 20
workshops and a large fleet of machinery invented by him.

1923: Nine absolute records in the onboard chronometer category of the contest for seriesproduced watches held by the
Neuchâtel Observatory. Creation of an ultra-thin calibre (3.4 mm).

1929: Zenith wins the Grand Prix at the Barcelona World Fair.

1939-1945: During World War II; Zenith develops onboard timers to equip the armed forces.

1948: Ephrem Jobin creates Calibre 135.

1954: Absolute record in the wrist chronograph category of the Neuchâtel observatory contest for series-produced watches.

1960: Production launch of the mechanical 5011K movement

1969: Birth of El Primero, the first integrated automatic chronograph movement (280 parts, 30 mm in diameter, 6.5 mm thick, 55-hour power reserve, 36,000 vibrations per hour).

1972: Zenith Radio Corporation is bought up by the Americans.

1975: Production of the El Primero ceases and the firm switches entirely to quartz movements.

1978: The company is bought up by Swiss investor Paul Castella.

1981: Pierre-Alain Blum, CEO of Ebel, buys a number of El Primero movements

1986: Production of the El Primero movement is revived. Rolex orders some for its new Daytona automatic model.

1999-2001: The brand is bought up by the LVMH group headed by Bernard Arnaud. Thierry Nataf is appointed CEO.

2009: 40th anniversary of the El Primero. Jean-Frédéric Dufour is appointed to head the company.