Zenith this year has been celebrating the 50th anniversary of the EL Primero chronograph, and to cap off this massive milestone has partnered with auction house Phillips, in association with Bacs & Russo, to produce and auction a unique piece for charity. This new watch will be the first and only El Primero A386 to be produced in platinum, and continues to celebrate the invention of the game-changing automatic chronograph first released to the public eye in 1969.
Zenith x Phillips El Primero A386 in Platinum
 The actual style of the watch will be familiar to fans of the El Primero, with its elongated lugs, simple pump chrono pushers, and sturdy Zenith-signed crown outlining the bright face. This is the first Zenith watch to use lapis lazuli for its dial, which is a beautiful blue stone with flecks of gold found throughout. This special material plays host to the vintage-inspired style of the A386 dial configuration, with its outer tachymetric scale, applied and lume-accented hour markers, the 4:30 date window, and subdials for running seconds, 30-minute counter, and 12-hour counter. The 12-hour counter is slightly shrunken compared to the two other subdials, and lacks the overlapping characteristic common to the A386. This is likely due to the fragility of lapis lazuli and Zenith’s need to give the dial a more structural support, but this layout also adds an element of uniqueness to the aesthetic of the watch. The watch is the first El Primero in a platinum case....