Zenith El Primero New Vintage 1969 One-Year Review

Team,


Other day, I was updating a spreadsheet that I use to control my small collection and I notice that my El Primero New Vintage 1969 was about to celebrate its first anniversary and I decide to create this post describing the experience of having it with on my wrist for an entire year.

Let’s see what I could find, after 315,360,000 beats (365 days x 24 hours x 36,000 bph) of this watch. Yes, I’m using the US number notation and it represents 315 millions of beats!

Introduction

This watch was released by Zenith in 2009 to commemorate the first 40 years of the El Primero.

The original version, A384, was released in 1969.




(Picture from the Internet)

The re edition was made in three versions: steel, titanium and gold.




(Picture from the Internet)

My first exposure to this watch was here at the PuristSPro.

I was immediately attracted by the style with angular lines, the colored dial and hands and by the well deserved homage to a movement that I truly admire.

It’s unnecessary to praise the Zenith El Primero family of movements that, for more than 44 years demonstrated its unrivaled qualities that stands after all those years.

The year of 1969

For sure, 1969 was a very unusual year for humankind, full of events that helped to shape our future.

Here are a few of those events.

On music:

• Led Zeppelin's first album is released
• Johnny Cash performs "A Boy Named Sue" at California's San Quentin State Prison
• The first complete performance of The Who's rock opera Tommy during a performance in Dolton, Devon, UK
• Sly & the Family Stone release their breakthrough album, Stand!
• The Woodstock Music and Art Festival is held near Woodstock, New York
• Elvis Presley hits No. 1 on the Billboard chart with "Suspicious Minds"
• The Jackson 5 release their debut album

On technology:

• The Boeing 747 makes its maiden flight
• The first Concorde test flight is conducted
• Apollo 11 (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins) goes to the Moon
• The first ARPANET link is established (the progenitor of the global Internet)
• Seymour Cray develops the CDC 7600, the first supercomputer
• Gary Starkweather invents the laser printer whilst working with Xerox

On horology:

• Three sets of vendors: Seiko, a joint venture between Heuer, Buren, Hamilton, Breitling and Dubois-Depraz and Zenith released the first automatic chronograph (Zenith did a press conference showing the El Primero in January).
• Quick note: The name “El Primero” was selected by Zenith, from the Spanish meaning “The First”. There are several places over the Internet that claims that “El Primero” is Esperanto. No way. If it was “The First” in Esperanto the name should be “Unua”, according to my sources (Google translate).
• In December, Seiko unveiled the quartz Astron, the world's first quartz watch that few years after precipitated the so called “quartz crisis”.

So, this is a very small sample of what was the year of 1969.

Let’s go back to my watch.

A small recap

This 2009 New Vintage follows the original design of the A384 model (and many others) that is built using sharp angles on a “tonneau case”.

The New Vintage is little bigger, by 2mm, than the original A384. I believe that Zenith considered the original A384 dimensions (38mm, 19mm of lug space) too small for this re edition and I agree.

I had access to an original one and I confirm that is too small for today’s standards.





Many complain, and I also agree, is the fact that the enlargement of the case prompted Zenith to use overlapped sub dials.
This overlap disturbs the original sub dial balance and makes some time measurements more complex.

The fact is that, after a few days on the wrist that I really don’t care.

Zenith maintained the date at 4:30, where it should be.





Dimensions and other metrics

• Case Size:            40mm (without the crown) x 44mm (including lugs)
• Case Thickness:  14 mm
• Water-resistance: 50 m / 5 ATM

Quality / Movement

My watch was tested on a time machine, as I usually do, when new and after one year and the overall parameters are exact the same (+2, -1 seconds/day).

This demonstrates the excellence of the El Primero design and shows that Zenith quality control is doing a good job.

It should be noted that this watch was made in 2009 and all measurable parameters (amplitude, beat error etc.) were in fine shape and it continued to beat strong.

The movement, which seems to me like a regular El Primero caliber 400Z but on this model, got the number of 469, to celebrate the 1969. It works as any other El Primero that I owned or own.

The word “perfect” is not enough to describe this glorious movement.

I admire how something that was designed without computers resists the test of time. It works and works and works.

Another factor that I like on this movement is the 50 hours power reserve. This power reserve allows me to wear another watch for a day and just grab it from the box and its correct, working as it should.





On the wrist

Initially I was concerned about the domed sapphire crystal associated with the lack of a protection bezel that could suffer some scratches. As of now, this didn’t happen (double knock on the wood).

Amazes me the fact that, after wearing it on a very frequent basis, that I cannot locate any visible scratches on the case.

The watch sits very well on my wrist and is one of the most comfortable watches that I regularly wear. Even the sapphire case back, that on a hot and wet weather (normal here) disturbs me a little, do not “glue” on my wrist.

The standard 20mm lug space gives to me the opportunity to try many strap options. So far I don’t have any preference and I swap straps on a regular basis.

For the summer season, I prefer to use a synthetic strap but most of time I wear it on leather.




(This is the first picture that I took from this watch, on the day it arrived)





(Looks good on our garden)





(100% approved by Noel on his standard bite test)

The Chronograph

Even considering that the El Primero beats at 36000 bph, allowing measurements of 1/10s (100ms), this is more a theoretical approach.
Human response time sits around 150-300ms and based on that, I consider this more as a nice marketing feature that is impossible to use.

The El Primero follows the classic approach to chronograph (column wheel, horizontal coupling) and, the words from my senior watchmaker; “there is nothing there to add or to remove”.

My only complain about this classical design is the annoying jump of the chronograph hand that happens from time to time, when the chronograph is activated.

The chronograph pushers are firm and produce a pleasant “click” when the pusher is activated. I know several other chronograph movements that have a more soft activation but the El Primero gives me a better tactile feedback of the activation.

I seldom use the chronograph, except to time pasta (my family originated from the north of Italy) and when brewing tea. In any case I’m hooked on chronographs and I know that I can count on it.





Pros

I love this watch, it’s an El Primero. No need to say anything more.




(I love the multiple colors on the dial and hands)

Cons

The original strap (way too stiff) and the buckle (with the star on it) are not up to the watch.

Nothing that is dramatically bad but, as I stated before, I replaced the strap and the buckle (with one with the star stamped).

Summary

Why I acquired this watch?

Because it represents 44+ years of a manufacture that has a long history behind and produces pieces that I learn to trust.

Add to this the fact that my watchmaker team loves this movement and they feel grateful when it’s time to maintain any one of my El Primero watches.

It’s a solid keeper, IMHO.

Value for the money?

Yes, it values every single penny that I paid on it and I consider a great value for the money.

Rarity

Zenith made only 500 pieces of this model (SS), 250 of the Ti version (that I also own). It’s not hard to locate one on the secondary market. I have no information about the availability on a Zenith A.D.

Conclusion

I’m a firm believer that the watch industry, here represented by Zenith, is at one maturity level that is hard to create anything that is a true novelty.

Zenith, as many other manufacturers, has a past that is so rich that they can produce re editions that carries a strong appeal to me.

Bring on more re editions, Zenith. We are here … Waiting.





Thank you for reading.

Cheers,

Nilo
This message has been edited by nilomis on 2013-07-23 11:26:34