Zenith

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Zenith Coffee House Tales XIV: Brunching with the Zenith El Primero Sport on rubber strap!

The Zenith El Primero Sport is a cornerstone watch for the manufacture, with a bold, modernist exterior, legendary El Primero mechanics and an activity-geared technical conception, which comes at an attractive price to lure newcomers into the exciting shops of the Le Locle-based brand.

Albeit being of last year's vintage, I tonight I revisit this piece for two reasons: (i) it offers lovely detailing and (ii) I simply did not spend sufficient time in the right light to appreciate the new rubber strap.



What is it?
The Zenith El Primero Sport (Ref. 03.2280.400/91.R576) is one of the largest watches currently on offer, sporting a substantial 45mm diameter. Thus, its not for everybody, for sure. The case is crafted from stainless steel and accentuated with interchanging polished and brushed surfaces; in other words, it follows the brand's main design theme.

Technically, it is an automatic chronograph with seconds (central), minutes and hours counters as well as a date function.



One feature worth pointing out further is the water resistance. With 200m (20 ATM), this instrument can follow you deeper into water than anything else from the brand. Like with most other watches of similar watertightness, the crown as well as the pushers are screwed down.

Normally, particularly the latter causes inconveniences as unscrewing them hampers spontaneous time measurements. Sure, there are constructions which do away with the screwing mechanism yet still ensure the same depth rating, but these are costly. Zenith, however, conceived a thread which requires just 1/2 a turn to fully un-/re-screw, thus making the locking exercise an experience of little pain.



There exist altogether three versions of this model (four if you count the Sport Stratos Team Edition). With a little bit of pressure from Zenith's Miss R (;-)) I concentrated on the watch with the dial in a slate grey velvet-finish and on a rubber strap:



How are its looks?
My initial assessment of this collection (you may read here!) was that it depends - one the light, as the dials can look either flat or excitingly detailed. I'd like to revisit this watch predicament.

One has to keep in mind that the El Primero movement is on the smaller side, by today's preferences, while the watch certainly is not. Thus, it was unavoidable for Zenith that the subdials would congregate around the dial's center. One can only enlarge them so much in an effort to conceil an apparent mismatch between movement construction and watch diameter before subdials eat into each other - hampering aesthetics and readibility alike. If then in addition unpropitious choices are made... Zenith fans certainly immediately get what I am referring to!



As with many of their contemporary watch, Zenith exhibits some talent in handling the circumstances. I only mention: layers, surfaces, contrasts !



You find the central large area with a vertical brushing finish surrounded by an opaque grey ring, the seconds chapter with its pronounced concentric rims and the outer scale, tilted and with a matte surface.



Note also the sharply cut index blocks:



The horizontal subdials have carved-in scales with a contrasting matte finish, only the hours counter at 6 o'clock is directly printed (discretely) on the dial plate.



The date integrates into both the grey ring as well as the seconds scale, and does so with a nicely executed 'terrace'-like window frame. This is a fascinating little detail that shows the care Zenith applied when designing this watch (actually, I find it a surprising detail on an overall bold watch - well done!).



Altogether, the relative dimensions of these areas are actually well-matched to achieve a consistent and pleasant look (and also to conceal a bit the comparatively small movement ticking inside).

Time to look on the flip-side, let's stop for a while and admire the Zenith El Primero Cal. 400B :



Now back to the rubber strap, which indeed, at least with mine example, had a faint vanilla smell I appreciate a lot (see Blancpain, for example!). Reminiscent to the very early 1950 plastic straps, it has numerous punched in holes. they not simply an optical element, no, they provide very weclome ventilation to carry away sweat.

The strap also has a visible diminution in thickness after about 2cm from the case:



It's fastened by Zenith's standard (and surprisingly comfortable) deployant strap.



How is it to wear? 
When I first tried it during BaselWorld 2015 I was wearing a suit with a shirt (colourful, but still), and the light was harsh:



With shirt/suit practically framing the watch and providing a direct point of reference the watch appears fairly large. Too large certainly for occasions where you would actually wear such attire (to think about combining business dresses with rubber strap is another - but separate - issue!). The halogen-powered direct light did not help either, masking the subtleties of layers, surfaces, contrasts.

So that is one exclusion to keep in mind.

Fast forward to later summer 2016. Zenith's Miss R really pushed me to try the watch again, but this time in a proper environment:



See? I carefully chose above image to offer a direct contrast, wearing the Sport on my bare wrist with natural morning light, just like in the suit-shot perpendicularly directed on the dial - ceteris paribus, if you like. What this allows us is to simply examine the difference pure wristing (as you clearly see, that is much more than just strapping on a watch - I should license this word ;-)) makes. And there it is, the Sport sitting purely on the wrist, it now only dominates, but does no longer feels out of place, or too large and too imposing. The finesse of the dial is still somewhat hidden (to keep this in line with the first wrist shot), but this does not taint the wearing pleasure.

One step forward, and let's allow the sun to apply her magic:



Now this is almost an entire different watch: powerful, presenting an abundance of detail on many levels.

Concluding I think the Sport is a fantastic weekend and activity watch. Its not clearly a 'sports' watch (in the sense of a tool), its sometimes compromised legibility prohibits this. But its 'sporty', athletic and full of details. Large but not excessively so.

Young and foolish, what can go wrong?



For more on El Primero Sport please click on Zenith's website here .

Cheers, and thanks for reading,
Magnus


Our location:
the Café Seven in Vienna's multi-ethnic 16th district Ottakring. Recently underwent refurbishment, Seven combines modern interior with an arabic spice. Open everyday, its breakfast buffet is to die for: Fresh, cold and warm varieties, salty and sweet. Add this to a fine Turkish coffee or a sweet tea - a perfect start into the weekend!