Zenith El Primero Chronomaster Sport Chronograph ref. 03.3100.3600/21.M3100 – Full set, 2021

During the 1960s, four major brands got into intense competition over creating the first-ever self-winding chronograph wristwatch.
Heuer and Breitling collaborated and received the support of Hamilton, Buren, and Dubois-Depraz, whereas Zenith and Seiko chose to go their own ways. By early 1969, all four companies had constructed a chronograph wristwatch that featured automatic winding, and they had all done remarkable jobs. The Caliber 11 from Heuer, the 6139 from Seiko, and Zenith’s El Primero all proved themselves as accurate and reliable, well-engineered movements, each of which would go on to inspire a diverse line-up of respective successors.

The watch on offer here is one of those successors.
When it was first announced, the El Primero Chronomaster Sport was seen as a bit of a controversial move, with a lot of folks accusing the model of resembling the Rolex Daytona a little too closely.
And while we would normally be first in line to defend people’s right to an opinion, in this case, we must insist – to look at this watch and see a copy is to wholly miss the point.
Let’s take a step back to 1988 for a second: the glory days of the automatic chronograph are nearing an end, the Quartz crisis has just obliterated the mechanical watch market, and the world is about to step into the 90s – a time when the words high-tech sound cool and humanity is at the verge of inventing the screensaver. Amid these topsy turvy times, Rolex is looking to take their beloved racing chrono into the new millennium and beyond, yet their first in-house automatic chronograph movement is still 12 years away. So what do they do? They take the El Primero, swap out half of its components for ones made by their very own watchmakers, lower its frequency from 36,000 bph to 28,800 bph to extend its power reserve, and voila! – the Daytona is reborn into one of the most popular watches of the 90s, not to mention a universal symbol of success and an absolute trendsetter for decades to come.
Zenith also benefitted from this arrangement, of course, since traditional watchmaking was at a point where any win was a collective win against the battery-driven gadgets of tomorrow. This collaboration led to an increase in the popularity of both the El Primero and the Daytona, but what is more important, contributed to the restoration of the luxury watch to its rightful place. A small aesthetic tribute by Zenith, therefore, is more than called for. What is left to say about the Chronomaster Sport other than that it is just as masterfully crafted and finished as it is technically brilliant. It is powered by the brand-new caliber El Primero 3600, visible via the display caseback.

Our offering is in very good condition, comes with its original boxes and papers, and is outfitted with its OEM bracelet.

Covered by manufacturers international warranty (started in 10.2021).