The A3817 case, which was re-released a couple of years ago now, is enjoying quite the renaissance and in 2020 we saw the addition of the iconic ladder bracelet. The style of hands is in-keeping with those from the original A3817 and featuring a thin black stripe down the centre, which is briefly interrupted by SuperLuminova. In between 4 and 5 o’clock is the date aperture, which is rather un-intrusive and doesn’t seem to unbalance the dial at all. The rhodium-plated hour markers are inlaid with faux SuperLuminova (a detail we’ll get back to). The base of the dial is an eye-catching grained white backdrop, with a black soundwave minute track, which is encircled by a black chapter right that displays a tach-o-meter and pulsations scale. At 3 is the blue minute register, at 6 is the grey hour register and 9 o’clock is the light grey running seconds register with blue hand. The A3817 Revival features a white dial, with overlapping tri-colour registers. For this Chronomaster Revival piece, Zenith sought to recreate the same effect, almost indistinguishable from the original with its red chronograph central second hand and tri-colour chronograph counters. What made the original A3817 truly standout was its white dial with tri-colour registers and instantly distinctive uneven racing track, that resembled sharks’ teeth. Moreover, only 1000 examples of the A3817 were ever made, making it one of the most elusive and sought-after references among the early El Primero chronograph watches. A385 with the striking tri-colour dial of the A386, resulting in a unique and aesthetically pleasing 70’s sports chronograph. A3817 was released in 1971 and it combined the sportier steel tonneau-shaped case of earliest El Primero ref. The A386, the A385 the basis for the A3817 and the A384. While there is a debate on who was first, there’s no doubt that Zenith were first to announce the El Primero, with three different references. However, there were a couple of silent watch manufactures working on this advance too: in the Far East was Seiko, who were busy working on their own version and then there was the company from Le Locle Zenith. There were of course a few companies that shared an interest in claiming this technological breakthrough: Heuer/Buren-Hamilton/Breitling. During the early 1960s there was a race on to see who could create the world’s first self-winding (automatic) chronograph. The El Primero is a legend within its own right but there is a much debated story behind it. It was only as recently as the 1960s that there was a push to invent an automatic chronograph and while Zenith can be considered the first, it wasn’t quite that straight forward. I’ve previously mentioned before that chronograph watches have been around since the 19 th century, but it wasn’t that long ago that automatic chronographs were introduced. Zenith has been on a bit of a roll lately with their re-editions and not too long ago they introduced one of their latest re-edition timepieces and luckily for us, we were able to get our hands on an example to get up close and personal to see if this recreated El Primero was all we expected it to be? As you know, the Zenith El Primero is quite simply one of the most important chronographs in watchmaking history.
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