Zenith is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer founded in 1865 by Georges Favre-Jacot in Le Locle, Switzerland. The company is a subsidiary of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Zenith operates from its original site in Le Locle, where it has maintained continuous production for over 150 years.
The brand is best known for the El Primero movement, introduced in 1969 as one of the first automatic chronograph movements in the world. The El Primero operates at a high frequency of 36,000 vibrations per hour (5 Hz), enabling timing accuracy to 1/10th of a second. This movement has been used not only in Zenith's own watches but was also supplied to Rolex for use in the Daytona from 1988 to 2000. The El Primero remains in production and has been updated through successive generations.
In 2017, Zenith introduced the Defy El Primero 21, capable of measuring 1/100th of a second using two escapements operating at different frequencies. The brand has continued to push chronometric boundaries with developments such as the Defy Extreme and the Chronomaster Sport.
Core collections include the Chronomaster (El Primero-powered chronographs), Defy (contemporary sport watches with advanced materials), Pilot (aviation-inspired timepieces with historical military connections), and Elite (thin automatic dress watches). Zenith manufactures all movements in-house, including cases and dials, making it one of the few fully integrated manufactures in Switzerland.
Retail prices generally start at approximately $5,000 for Elite models and extend to over $50,000 for complicated and limited references. Zenith operates boutiques and sells through authorized retailers and its e-commerce platform.