Zenith El Primero Sriking 10th

Baselworld 2013 : Zenith Pilot Type 20 novelties and Zenith El Primero 36000vpH

The Locloise, champion of controlled high frequency, revives its past of the conquest of the skies.

By Joel Grandjean
Editor-in-Chief

Although the heavenly perimeter is particularly well served by the Swiss watch brands, in terms of communication or taking image ownership, Zenith, located since almost 150 years at the same address, deserves to remind that it was a pioneer in delivering watches and aircraft instruments for the fledgling aviation industry. Six new references Pilot Montre d’Aéronef Type 20 – including a special edition tribute to the Red baron – walk the talk.

Zenith Pilot in full flight - Montres d'Aéronef Type 20

Zenith Pilot Montre d'Aeronef Type 20 GMT Red Baron
Certainly, very much fashionable, the wave of vintage styleputs a chief card on the table also this side of the Neuchâtel Mountains. Louis Blériot, pioneer of the air crossing of the Channel, exclaimed already “Zenith, is it not a name predestined for Aviators”? At the time of this customer for risk and competition, the Manufacture became famous for its on-board instruments, altimeters and aircraft watches, actually useful to the crazies of the sky accustomed to squatter dashboards of military or civilian aircrafts. On the backdrop of performance and reliability, the reference Type 20, drastically controlled by the aero naval authorities of the time, relives today over six new variations.

Zenith Pilot Montre Aeronef Type 20
Zenith Pilot Montre d'Aeronef Type 20 Annual Calendar
It goes down from its humongous size – 48 mm for its Tourbillon, Calendar and GMT versions – to a more appropriate 40mm of diameter proportion around the Elite 681 automatic calibre of 11½ lines, constitued of 128 components joined to deliver its 50 hours of power reserve. This hour and minute at the centre, small seconds at 9 o’clock, uses for its rotor «Côtes de Genève» designs. Being convex, its sapphire glass make use of its anti reflect treatment to make visually palpable the black rutherium satinated hands and indexes sated of SuperLuminova.

Zenith Pilot Montre d'Aeronef Type 20 Tourbillon

The El Primero 36,000vpH, generically legendary

From its iconic mechanical essence, the mythical movement that most naturally gives it its name and its indication of vibrations per hour, this 2013 novelty turns into an identity concentrate. While in 1969 the monochrome watch dial fashion was in full swing, this model stood out, shaped by its multi-hued dial with three counters of different colors and a second hand chronograph opting for an ultra-readable red.

Zenith El Primero Sriking 10th
Zenith El Primero Sriking 10th
Even by 100 meters of depth, it is according to the same colorful panache that the 2013 model is declined, blue night for the 30 minute counter at 3 h, anthracite for 12 h at 6 h and light gray as a backdrop for a small second cavorting at 9 o’clock. As for the sunray silver dial, it sees in its periphery bloom a tachymeter scale that emphasizes the correct proportions of its unchanging roundness, a diameter of 42 mm. Inhabited by an automatic caliber El Primero 400 b, genetically attuned to the legendary character, this piece relies on the famous high-frequency 36'000 vibrations per hour - a record for mass production - to deliver a 50-hour power reserve.

Zenith El Primero Sriking 10th
Extra picture: a wristshot of Felix Baumgartner wearing the Zenith El Primero Sriking 10th.

Zenith's ambassador Felix Baumgartner was the first human to complete the astonishing drop from the top of the stratospher on October 2012.

Felix Baumgartner wristshot with a Zenith El Primero Sriking 10th

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