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Zenith was the name of a movement before it was the name of a company. The star on the dial of this vintage Zenith manual wind watch records that order of events, and the business behind the signature began with one decision about how a watch should be made.
In 1865 Georges Favre-Jacot set up a watchmaking business in Le Locle, in the Neuchâtel mountains. At the time the parts of a movement were made by scattered, independent craftsmen across the region, each making and supplying components. Favre-Jacot’s idea was to bring those separate trades together inside a single organization of his own. Accounts of the firm describe the operation growing to take in a foundry, rolling mills and stamping machines, together with case making and dial making, so that a complete watch could be built in one place rather than gathered from many.
The buildings followed the idea. The complex was connected to the Le Locle railway station so that raw materials could arrive directly, its halls were built with large windows, and the separate buildings were joined by corridors so that watchmakers could move between sections in any weather. In 1900 a calibre named Zenith won the Grand Prix at the Paris Universal Exhibition. The movement’s name was eventually taken over by the whole firm, which adopted Zenith as the company name in 1911.
The signature on the dial, the star on the crown and the Zenith name on the movement tie the watch to that company, not to the prize. What we value is the plainness of the connection: a vintage Zenith manual wind with the maker’s name in three places and no further claims attached.
The case is round stainless steel, 35mm across and 44mm from lug to lug, with a smooth bezel, long curved lugs, a raised domed crystal and a fluted crown signed with the star. The dial carries the star above ZENITH, applied Arabic numerals at twelve, three, six and nine with baton markers between them, pointed hands, a central seconds hand and no date, and it has toned unevenly with age. The inside of the back is stamped ACIER INOXYDABLE, the French for stainless steel, and the manual wind movement is signed Zenith, Swiss Made and fifteen jewels. The watch comes on a forest green Italian suede strap with an OTTUHR buckle, 18mm at the lugs, and fits wrists up to 8 inches.
