With the Zenith Defy El Primero 21, it’s not just small improvements that have been made but a massive technical achievement. The other added-value of the 5Hz frequency is the ability to achieve a better chronometry (on paper, the faster a regulator beats, the more precise it can be) and the super-smooth run of the second hand. Besides the higher precision, a measurement to the 10th of a second is simply more coherent with our notion of time. 5Hz means 10 beats per second (remember: 1Hz is one oscillation, so actually 2 beats) and that allows you to measure to the 10th of a second, and not to the 6th of a second as with a 3Hz watch or to the 8th of a second as with a 4Hz watch. 5hz means greater accuracy and the ability to time events with a higher precision. Zenith Defy El Primero 21 – From 5Hz to 50Hzĥhz… something that watchnerds know to be more than just a number. And now, you probably guessed why it is named the Zenith Defy El Primero 21. Still, for Zenith, this was certainly way too 20th century and the manufacture decided that for Baselworld 2017, the icon needed to enter into the 21st century, with more than just an update. But what made it so special, even in today’s production, was its high-frequency, beating not at 3Hz or 4Hz, like most other chronographs, but at 5Hz / 36,000vph – meaning it was able to indicate the 10th of a second. It was launched in 1969, as one of the very first (if not the first) automatic chronograph movements, and already showed impressive architecture – fully integrated chronograph with central rotor and column-wheel, far from a last-minute patch-up job. The El Primero is one of the few iconic movements. The story of the Zenith El Primero has almost become legend. When we talk about icons in watchmaking, most of the time we refer to watches as a whole. Here is the Zenith Defy El Primero 21… and it’s fast, very fast. At Baselworld, the Le Locle-based manufacture has given this fast-beating engine a 21st century appeal: 50Hz frequency, precision to 100th of a second, modern look, open-worked movement. Back in 1969, Zenith introduced a movement that would later become an icon, being both one of the first automatic chronograph movements, and being the 20th century’s king of precision, beating at 5Hz and being precise to a 10th of a second.
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