Egad. Looks like I missed Primero Day. Even worse, it looks like I didn't buy an EP in the past year. Gotta recycle the 2014 pic...
Hi all, I was actually going to buy a De Luca or Rainbow but then this one caught my attention from the AD's window and as they say the rest was history so here is my Red Limited Edition 42mm El Primero #229/500 IMAG0109 by Marc Obermann, on Flickr Marc
Yes, 1/10 is the anniversary of the press conference to announce the existence of the El Primero. However, it was my understanding that no prototype was shown and no Zenith automatic chronometer watches were release for public sale until the summer of 1969. Meanwhile, Seiko was selling the Ref. 6139 automatic chronograph in to the public in Japan beginning in May 1969. "So what can we glean from our investigation into the great race of 1969? Some answers are easy: Zenith first introduced the automatic chronograph watch to the public, while Seiko’s watch was the first to appear on the market. And while Heuer and Breitling were close behind the others in production, they were probably the first to put a plan for such a watch in motion." "The Great Race of '69" - Gisbert L. Brunner, WatchTime Magazine - December 2009, pp.102-113. Since Seiko was first to market, by my definition (not everyone else's), they are the "El Primero" and Zenith was "El Segundo". No question of which chronograph design was best, it's the one still being made. And that's Zenith! gatorcpa
FYI, I'm sure someone will be able to post it (I'm on mobile at work), but there is a news article in a Swiss newspaper from 1/11 that reports on the press conference and includes a photo of an A 384. Doesn't change the first to market point, but there was a prototype.
I just like to poke the Zenithisti on that one. IMO, after taking over all the market share from the American companies after WWII, the Swiss were clueless of anything happening outside their borders. It can get heated sometimes. gatorcpa
Yeah, someone at Zenith certainly dropped the ball (or didn't care) about advertising. Since it seems appropriate in this thread, here's the image, courtesy of Nicola and the O&P forum, of Swiss news articles from January 10, 1969:
Happy EP day, all! I tracked down 3 EP's in 2014: The Grail I hunted years for: A386, version I image by jfwoodman, on Flickr The DeLuca, version I Zenith De Luca I by jfwoodman, on Flickr The TV image by jfwoodman, on Flickr Jim
I'm more than impressed by the accuracy of this movement. My new PIlot Big Date is more accurate than my Omega 9300. Less than 1 sec a day, amazing.
