Its odyssey is now a part of watchmaking lore: famously tucked away in an attic by a quietly insubordinate Zenith employee named Charles Vermot and thus rescued from its corporate-ordered extinction as the 1970s quartz crisis wreaked havoc on the Swiss watch industry and threatened to render such micro-mechanical wonders obsolete. The high-frequency chronograph caliber famously burst on the scene in 1969 - the seminal year of the Great Automatic Chronograph Race, about which much ink and pixels have already been spilled. Whereas many brands in its category are known for a flagship watch model - Omega for the Speedmaster, Audemars Piguet for the Royal Oak, Rolex for the Submariner, the Daytona - well, name just about any Rolex model - Zenith’s fame comes chiefly not from a model per se but from a movement - the legendary El Primero. While the conversation was largely off the record, the gist of it was about the challenge that a brand like Zenith faces from a marketing standpoint in today’s crowded, competitive luxury watch market. Several years ago, I had the pleasure of touring the Zenith manufacture in Le Locle, Switzerland, and afterward had the chance to speak with representatives of the brand.
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