Zenith created one of the first automatic chronograph movements, the El Primero. This watch follows in the design footsteps of one of the early releases with that movement, the A386, and thus offers a very vintage aesthetic with some modern enhancements.

Diameter: 38mm

Lug-to-lug: 46mm

Thickness: 12.9mm

Lug width is: 19mm

The watch has 50 meters of water resistance.

Turning to the dial you can see a color that Zenith refers to as “white matte”. Others refer to it as silver, silvery-white, or some variant thereof. Up close you can see the silver elements that provide the matte effect. I would say the best description is the dial looks more silver the lower the lighting conditions, whereas in bright, direct light the effect comes across more as white. It is worth stressing this as a lot of the promotional images make the dial look more white than you’ll probably experience it in many in-door situations.

Continuing with dial color, you can see there are three subdials, each with its own color scheme. The 3 o’clock subdial is in blue and is the chronograph’s 60-second register. The 6 o’clock subdial is a dark grey and is the chronograph’s 60-minute register. The 9 o’clock subdial is a light grey and is the watch’s running seconds display. The hour and minute hands are pencil shaped and painted white, and lumed. The central red hand is part of the chronograph function and sweeps around the dial once every ten seconds. Markings at the chapter ring allow the use of this red hand to read down to a tenth of a second (the outer, white track is in seconds, the inner black track is in deciseconds). The watch features applied hour indices that are also lumed. There is a date window at the 4:30 position, a staple of the El Primero design, though this is more of a stark white and is not an exact color-match to the dial. The dial is protected by a significantly domed sapphire crystal.

At the 12 o’clock position is an applied Zenith star, followed by the brand name, followed by the El Primero label and the vibrations per hour of the movement.

As for the lume itself, it offers decent initial brightness for time telling.

The watch case is made out of stainless steel, as is the bracelet. The surface of the case is primarily brushed though the thin bezel is polished. The sides of the case are also polished. The center links of the bracelet are polished and the sides are brushed. The clasp is a single fold deployment clasp with a clam shell lock, and it offers five micro-adjust positions. The links themselves are fastened with double-screw heads, one side is a hollow pin and a small screw inserts into the pin from the other side. These are tricky to remove because you need to hold both screw heads to prevent the pin from just spinning.

The crown offers three positions. In position zero the crown is pushed in and the movement can be wound. In position one the quick-date feature can be used. In position two the watch hacks and the time can be set. There are also two plungers to operate the chronograph. Pushing the top plunger starts the chronograph. Pushing it again stops the chronograph. Pushing the bottom plunger resets the chronograph. This is not a flyback chronograph so the function must be stopped before it can be reset.

Flipping the watch over you can see another the watch has a display caseback, showing the caliber El Primero 3600. This is a relatively new movement from Zenith, launched in 2019, and is why the watch features a central chronograph hand that makes one turn every 10 seconds. The movement features 35 jewels, beats at 5 Hertz (hence why the watch can offer tenth of a second accuracy when using the chronograph for timing) and provides about 60 hours of power reserve. This is a column-wheel chronograph movement that relies on a lateral clutch.

Putting this watch on my timegrapher, I get an average across all six positions of +1.7 seconds per day. The range of readings was -11 seconds per day to +7.25 seconds per day. This movement actually registered a lot of variance in each position, so I ended up averaging several readings since my hands-on wearing of the watch suggested it was keeping good time.

My overall thoughts:

The positives:

• Great size

• Chronograph functions feel good

• Comfortable to wear

The negatives:

• Bracelet issues

Zenith launched this watch on bracelet at $9,000 U.S. but had it on their site for $10,000 when I first did my video review. If you go grey market or used you can at the time of this writing generally find them in the $7,000-$7,500 range.

My only real complaint is the bracelet. It’s comfortable to wear, but definitely could use some upgrades. Having five micro-adjust points helps a lot with getting a good sizing but it requires a tool to use. Link changing is a huge frustration if you’re like me and lack the tools to just hold one screw head still without dedicating both hands to the task, but of course that is a one-time experience. Also, no quick release to make changing off the bracelet convenient, and despite the 19mm lug width this watch is a strap monster and goes well with a lot of different looks (as you can see from Zenith’s website just in terms of the strap options they sell it on).

But really that’s my only complaint. While the watch on paper sounds small at 38mm I find the 3600 movement does allow relatively ease on even reading chronograph timing to the tenth of a second. The subdials are clearly distinguished thanks to the tri-color approach and are clearly marked (the running seconds probably the hardest to read due to the markings being white on light grey, but it also is the least important to read at an ultra-specific level). The chronograph functionality feels really good. My only other expensive mechanical chronograph experience is on an H-31 movement which is based on the Valjoux 7753 and is not a chronograph that I would ever describe as impressive in terms of how it feels to use. The El Primero 3600 offers a far superior experience. The watch look itself is sporty but elegant enough to be at home in a range of casual to more formal settings, especially if you are willing to change the swap choices around. The size keeps it comfortable and a viable option for a lot of wrist sizes.