![]() ![]() ![]() The shadow’s blacked-out look is unlike anything I have collected in the past, yet I immediately felt an undeniable connection with it. That plan became much more pressing the day I first laid my eyes on the Zenith Chronomaster Revival Shadow. With such an epic origin story and beautiful timepieces, I always felt Zenith was underrated and had it in the back of my mind to eventually add an El Primero to the collection. Not long after, Zenith would be using the famous calibre in its own watches once more. By 1988, Rolex was using the El Primero in its Daytona. ![]() This act of corporate defiance not only saved a watchmaking legacy, but it also saved Zenith as a business, allowing it to re-emerge from the ashes of the Quartz Crisis as the world’s premier manufacturer of automatic chronographs. Under the cover of night, he carried 150 presses responsible for manufacturing Zenith’s legendary El Primero movement (along with cams, special tools, and operating plans) up 52 steps to a workshop attic, concealing everything behind a wall like a time-capsule to be discovered in the distant future. A workshop employee by the name of Charles Vermot was having none of that. In a desperate attempt to stay afloat, Zenith’s top brass ordered its workshops to cease manufacturing all mechanical calibers and to scrap the machinery related to their production in order to focus on quartz watches. Zenith, like many of its Swiss counterparts in the mid 1970s, was struggling for survival as cheap and accurate quartz timepieces from Japan began flooding the market. Take for example, Gerald Genta’s ground-breaking designs, credited for rescuing AP during the Quartz Crisis or Seiko’s meteoric rise during the 1960s from scoffed-at outsider to dominant force at the Swiss Chronometer trials and who can forget Omega’s famous exploits on the moon? (Omega sure won’t let you.) But my favorite origin story of all time is the story of how a simple watchmaker working at Zenith’s workshop #4 in Le Locle, Switzerland, saved a horological legacy, and the Zenith Chronomaster Revival Shadow is all about that story. The watch comes fitted on its Zenith blue 20mm Cordura strap with red stitching and a signed Zenith buckle and the watch comes with its Zenith presentation box and paperwork.There are few watch brands out there who can tell a truly compelling origin story. O n the reverse, a screw-down exhibition case back showcasing the automatic Zenith El Primero 400, 31 jewels, beating at 36,000 beats per hour, t his column-wheel chronograph has a bidirectional skeletonised rotor with the iconic Zenith star and is made up of 278 components. At 12 o’clock we have the Zenith motif with the El Primero in its distinctive swirling script completing this reimagined revival of the A384. The faceted Rhodium-plated hands are infilled with SuperLumiNova and complemented by a striking red and white chronograph hand. Between the 4 and 5 we have a date window, at 3 o’clock 30-minute register, at 6 o’clock at a 12-hour register and finally, at 9 o’clock a continuous seconds register each in white with black hands and numerals a nice contrast to the blue. ![]() A domed sapphire crystal sits above a gradient blue dial, an outer Tachymetre surrounds a precisely executed minute track with applied chamfer-edged baton indexes marking the hours. Radially brushed and polished bevel edges transition with crisp lines, down the right side we have the piston chronograph pushers and a signed crown in the centre. The 37mm stainless steel tonneau-shaped case curves over your wrist with thick angled lugs, a lug-to-lug length of 46.5mm and a case thickness of 12.5mm give the watch an impressive wrist presence. Here we have a 2021 Zenith Chronomaster Revival A384 US Liberty Edition of 150 pieces, this stunning watch is a reimagined version of their legendary A384 from 1969 which was one of the world's first automatic chronographs, this was made exclusively for the North American market. ![]()
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