Zenith was born in 1865, the vision of a 22-year old named Georges Favre-Jacot. He created the concept of a Manufacture by bringing all the artisan watchmakers, that used to work from their homes, under the same roof thus immensely improving quality control and cutting design and manufacturing times.

Throughout it's long history, the Zenith watch company has won over 1500 watch industry awards and created over 50 calibers, but it wasn't until 1969 that Zenith introduced the legendary "El Primero" chronograph movement, setting the standard for mechanical excellence. It was the first chronograph caliber with integrated automatic winding and is also the fastest chronograph in existence, beating at 36000 alternations per hour (compared to the more typical 28000) making it also the most precise in the world. The Zenith El Primero is also the only mechanical chronograph that can measure short time intervals to 1/10 of a second.

Ironically, at the same time that Zenith introduced it's greatest movement, quartz arrived to the watch world, an invention that would almost destroy the traditional swiss watch industry in the subsequent years. Zenith takes on the quartz challenge, preserving its precious tooling and waiting for the inevitable comeback of the mechanical movements. While many watch manufacturers ceased to exist during this rough years, Zenith was able to persist in part thanks to supplying its El Primero movement to other prestigious watch makers, the most famous being the Rolex Daytona.
In 1999 Zenith was acquired by the luxury giant LVMH group (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) and has since experienced a renewed popularity thanks to the introduction of some stunning new watches.