160 years is a long time. It feel evens longer when you are measuring time down to 1/10th of a second, and more so at 1/100th of a second. Zenith is celebrating its 160th anniversary and has reached this milestone performing the latter two examples with its El Primero chronograph calibre over the course of its rich history. “It’s cool to have 160 years of existence and uninterrupted history,” Romain Marietta declares proudly. As the manufacture marks this important milestone, we spoke with Zenith’s chief products officer about the significance of the anniversary and what Zenith has released to celebrate this special year.
Zenith is celebrating a remarkable milestone — 160 years of watchmaking excellence. How do you see this anniversary shaping Zenith’s future?
It’s cool to have 160 years of existence and uninterrupted history. We were founded in Le Locle and are still on the same premises. The whole idea [of this anniversary] is to make it work for the next 160 years. Our role is to establish the brand for the future. This year, we’re introducing a new collection, the G.F.J. It is a major milestone and a massive shift in positioning for this collection. I’m very excited because it’s opening new doors to future developments.
Anniversaries often serve as moments of reflection. Looking back at Zenith’s legacy, what have been the brand’s most defining innovations or achievements?
There have been many — the founding moment in 1865 and the official Zenith naming in 1911 rank high. The Calibre 135 is close to my heart because I met its designer, Ephrem Jobin (will be touched on later). The creation of the El Primero is another big milestone. Charles Vermot saving the El Primero’s blueprints and stamping tools in the attic is also very cool because it allowed us to be recognised as a major movement supplier. In recent years, we have created a lot of cool watches, such as the Zero G and Striking 10th. I can name many more things, but these sum it up.
Portrait of Georges Favre Jacot
Georges Favre-Jacot’s founding vision was to achieve “the perfect watch.” How does the brand uphold Favre-Jacot’s founding philosophy today when perfection is never attainable but something we always still chase?
That’s the reality of all watchmaking brands regarding perfection and even precision. Georges Favre-Jacot’s dream was to establish perfection in the manufacture so that he could be capable of reproducing his dream watch, which is the most precise watch possible, on a larger scale. We have been a watch manufacturer ever since, so respecting his vision is the most important thing.
Creating a time-only watch [the G.F.J.] is extremely difficult because the simpler the watch, the more complex it is to design. Bringing the Calibre 135 back to life, working within its spirit and pushing boundaries were other challenges for us. We went beyond COSC certification standards to attain the same ±2 seconds accuracy of the past, which is a significant achievement for us.
The Calibre 135 has been an important part of the brand archives. How has it influenced Zenith’s watchmaking ideas and innovations through the decades?
It [Calibre 135] was a logical creation back then because it was one of Georges Favre-Jacot’s visions to participate and compete for the chronometry prizes. The Calibre 135 had a big impact on the chronometry competition history because watchmakers competed with wooden boxes back then, but our founder insisted that we submit fully assembled wristwatches. The competition declined in the 1960s, and when the Quartz Crisis happened (1970s), it wiped the mechanical watchmaking industry’s quest for precision.
Since then, the competition has experienced a slow revival to reach new levels of precision, but only in the mechanical watchmaking sphere because it’s impossible to surpass quartz precision. We need to cultivate this appreciation for mechanisms because they’re important objects that convey emotions. Our philosophy is to do as much as we can by hand, of course, with machine assistance.
Were there interesting anecdotes you uncovered while going through archive records of the Calibre 135?
We’ve had archives for quite a while and collaborated with Kari Voutilainen to restore the old Calibre 135, so there’s hardly any surprise. But I did discover that Georges Favre-Jacot was really into chronometry prizes, and he insisted on submitting a fully assembled wristwatch to the competition.
I had the opportunity to meet Ephrem Jobin in 2009 when he celebrated his 100th birthday. We invited him to the manufacture and had a special moment with him. Later, we showed him the original drawings of the Calibre 135. He was sickly at that point in his life, but he was illuminated when he saw the sketches and remarked, “I barely remembered what I had at breakfast [this morning], but I can tell you how I developed this movement.” It was a wonderful moment, and for 15 minutes or so, I learnt so much about the calibre when he explained the development to me.
Four Observatory victories in a row
I’m curious if the Calibre 135 archive records were also hidden in the same attic with the El Primero stamping tools and technical drawings.
Some, but not all, of the Calibre 135’s stamping tools were in the attic, while the technical drawings were kept away inside one of our engineer’s desks. She’s been working for Zenith for nearly 20 years, and I remember her showing them to me when I joined the company in case we ever needed them. Today, these records are maintained in the Heritage department.
Let’s Move from the G.F.J. and into the Zenith Blue Ceramic Chronograph Trilogy. Was the collection’s special blue shade difficult to achieve?
The idea was to match it to the Pantone colour we chose for Zenith’s corporate identity. The colour doesn’t exist for ceramics, and since it was a specific development, it required more time to achieve the right colour. After this, we had to test if the colour renderings turned out correctly with the different finishings we employed, such as micro-blasted, satin-brushed and polished surfaces.
Brands under the LVMH umbrella are sharing technology and know-how more than ever. I’m curious if there was any input from Hublot, given their expertise in ceramics, particularly coloured ones.
We have a lot of synergies with each other since some of our suppliers overlap. We provide them with movements while we have access to some of the materials they’re developing, specifically sapphires more than ceramics. We share a lot of knowledge, which is very important and which we appreciate.
2025 is an important year and milestone for Zenith. I believe what we saw at Watches & Wonders and LVMH Watch Week are just the tip of the iceberg. what’s planned for the rest of the year?
We still have a lot of other cool and interesting products in every collection, but a bit less for the Pilot collection because its 2023 relaunch is still fresh. There’ll be a red thread moment with Lapis Lazuli, where you’ll see other products featuring the stone. We will also have some new dive watches, and haute horlogerie models planned for the future. Starting next year, the G.F.J. will join Zenith’s core collection. You can also look forward to more exciting collaborations too, so that’s also something to look out for.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Once you are done with this story, click here to catch up with our June/July 2025 issue.