Officially designated as the references SBGW297 and SBGW299, these latest models showcase a scaled-down iteration of the iconic 44GS case, complemented by a manual-wind movement and the choice of either a white or blue textured dial. Both dials boast a captivating radial sunray surface reminiscent of the ancient artistry of fans. They are adorned with applied multi-faceted baton hour markers and a delicately printed minute track encircling the periphery. The dials are protected by a box-shaped sapphire crystal.

Beyond their dial color distinctions, the Grand Seiko SBGW297 and SBGW299 share identical features. The angular 44GS-inspired stainless steel cases are meticulously finished with brushing and Zaratsu polishing, resulting in a distortion-free mirror finish. Water-resistant to 100 meters, the case dimensions stand at 36.5mm in diameter by 11.6mm in thickness.

Driving the Grand Seiko Heritage Collection SBGW297 and SBGW299 watches is the renowned Caliber 9S64 manual-wind mechanical movement. Operating at a frequency of 28,800vph (4 Hz) and boasting a power reserve of approximately 72 hours, this movement undergoes rigorous testing in six different positions over seventeen days to meet Grand Seiko’s stringent accuracy standards of -3/+5 seconds per day.

The Grand Seiko SBGW297 and SBGW299 are attached to a three-link stainless steel bracelet that is completed by a triple folding clasp with a push-button release.

Pricing is marked at $5,400.

To learn more, visit Grand Seiko, here.

It is often thought that simple, clean designs are the easiest to create. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. The cleaner the design of the watch is, the more weight individual details have on the overall look. The trick is to incorporate just the right elements, and not a single one more, and create a synergy between them. This is also a much-needed aspect, as otherwise, your clean design would be boring. The following four watches are good examples that got it just right.

Nomos Orion 33 Duo

Nomos is a brand that takes particular pleasure in getting all the details of their watches just right. The Orion 33 Duo is as straightforward as a mechanical watch can be, with just two hands and a manual wind movement. It gets its character from the slim gold hands and hour markers and the long lugs. The domes sapphire crystal further adds to its personality. The icing on the cake is the fact that you cannot see the beautifully finished in-house caliber Alpha.2 due to the closed caseback. As already mentioned, less is sometimes more.

Grand Seiko SBGY007 Omiwatari

That a more restrained design also often results in a more elegant watch is something Grand Seiko proves with the SBGY007 Omiwatari. The dial is inspired by the frozen water of Lake Suwa, and has an almost delicate texture. Because of the clean look of the case, it becomes a focal point, but one that is best appreciated up close and personal. This highlights another aspect of watches that favor the “less is more” philosophy, they are almost always a private pleasure.

Junghans Max Bill

The Max Bill, created by the legendary Swiss designer of the same name, is a true design icon. This is not a term to be used lightly and comes with its own set of challenges. We are now six decades after it was introduced, and keeping it relevant for the market all that time is quite a feat. Junghans succeeded in this by respecting the work of Bill, yet playing with the details. While the model above has the same 34mm diameter as the original, it is now fitted with an automatic movement, a sapphire crystal, and even a date function.

Chopard L.U.C XP

Chopard gave the traditional dress watch a more contemporary look with the L.U.C XP. The brushed blue dial is not as formal as silver or black, while the red gold hands, numerals, and hour markers offer an enticing contrast. A stainless steel case might come as a surprise, adding a casual touch to which your suit won’t object. The strap made from virgin wool further plays into this, while Chopard underscores its reputation as an Haute Horlogerie brand by having a lining of alligator leather. This creates the perfect understatement, purely for the enjoyment of the owner.

Which one of these is your favorite? Let us know in the comment box below.

Nothing but the best is good enough for Grand Seiko. The watch manufacturer from the Far East made this a priority 60 years ago and, in order to win the Swiss chronometry competition, developed a high-speed caliber oscillating at a frequency of 36,000 vibrations per hour. Of course, even back then, people knew about the higher accuracy that went with higher frequency, but they were also well aware of the enormous technical challenges that must be mastered to achieve this noble goal.

The mainspring must do double duty: it has to deliver high torque to supply the balance with enough energy to support speedy back-and-forth oscillations while simultaneously storing enough energy to support an adequately long power reserve. Meanwhile, the gear train and escapement must be able to withstand the stronger forces acting on them. Then as now, Grand Seiko and Zenith are the only brands that have successfully tamed these forces in fast-oscillating, serially manufactured calibers.

Grand Seiko’s Caliber 61 passed the chronometer test administered at the Neuchâtel Observatory in 1969. At the same time, Grand Seiko was ready to launch its first quartz watch (the Astron) in keeping with the brand’s striving to build the world’s most accurate watches. It is therefore not surprising that this year’s Grand Seiko 60th anniversary collection includes both a quartz watch encasing newly developed Caliber GS 9F85 and a mechanical model with a speedily oscillating movement of the highest quality. The latter caliber ticks inside the Elegance GMT, our test watch.

A High-frequency Automatic Movement with a Modern Time-zone Display
The fast-paced heart of the Grand Seiko Elegance GMT is Caliber GS 9S86, which Seiko calls the “Hi-Beat.” Like Caliber GS 9S85 on which it is based, Caliber GS 9S86 shows the hours, minutes and seconds from the dial’s center. But unlike its predecessor, this new movement also includes a so-called “GMT” function. The name “GMT” is somewhat misleading because this modern time-zone function can do more than merely show the time in Greenwich. It earns the adjective “modern” because when its user changes the time zone via the middle crown position, the hour hand can be switched forward or backward step by step, in hourly increments. Meanwhile the fourth (GMT) hand keeps home time, assuming it had previously been set to that zone’s time as a 24-hour hand. The same hand could also be used to show a second time zone. During the time change, the date display automatically jumps forward or backward and to-the-second time is accurately kept because the movement continues to run. This is not only especially important for international travelers, but it also embodies Grand Seiko’s commitment to keeping time with the utmost accuracy. According to Grand Seiko’s latest standard, the acceptable tolerance must remain between -3 and +5 seconds of deviation per day (tested in six positions during 17 days). Our test watch gained about 3.5 seconds in various positions and thus upheld the standard. The very small difference among the several positions is especially noteworthy.

Grand Seiko’s time-zone function is on a par with those offered by brands such as Omega, Breitling, and Bulgari. And its high-speed movement is a nose ahead with an impressive 55-hour power reserve after full winding. A new mainspring enables the movement to achieve this long autonomy. The mainspring is made from an alloy known as “Spron 530,” which took six years to develop and delivers approximately six percent more power than its predecessor. This means that it guarantees high torque and thus provides the power needed to support the balance’s speedier frequency. It also adds an extra five hours to the power reserve, while simultaneously offering the same high degrees of corrosion resistance, durability and invulnerability to magnetism.

Furthermore, components manufactured using innovative MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical System) technology ensure the precision of the movement. MEMS is Seiko’s proprietary technology and was developed for semiconductor manufacturing. Thanks to MEMS, important components can be fabricated lighter, smoother and in finer detail. The escape wheel and lever are manufactured to an accuracy of 1/10,000th of a millimeter, thus significantly improving their performance. The new escape wheel contains oil reservoirs at the end of each gear tooth, which has improved the oil absorption on which the smooth functioning of the gear train depends.

Grand Seiko’s pride in high-speed movements can be seen on the dial with the 1/5-second scale along its edge, which the second hand reaches exactly. This is one of a trio of classic hands that have shaped Grand Seiko’s style from the very beginning — most recently, since 1967, with the 44GS. Smoothly satin-finished surfaces and highly polished edges create sharp contrasts and guarantee good legibility from various viewing angles, although they sometimes sparkle atop the glossy black background, as do the polished hour markers, which are beveled toward the dial’s center. A small movement of the wrist, however, is all that’s needed to regain a clear view of the time of day. Nighttime legibility is not part of Grand Seiko’s concept for the Elegance line.

The fourth hand was added to Grand Seiko in 2002. Its design differs from the dauphine style used for the main hands. And its matte finishing makes it appear blackish-gray and sometimes almost disappear, except for its eye-catching red arrowhead, which exactly reaches the outer end of the slightly lowered 24-hour ring.

Like many elements of the dial, some of the details of the case conform to the clear dress code of the Grand Seiko line. The narrow, sloping bezel is fully polished and particularly striking. It surrounds a highly curved sapphire crystal that underscores this watch’s retro style. The middle part of the case, by contrast, differs from its counterparts on other models because of its convex curvature. Familiar styling is preserved, however, in the characteristic facets on the strap lugs, which incline downward to assure good wearing comfort, despite the fact that this watch’s diameter is by no means small: it spreads a caliper’s jaws nearly 40 mm. Six screws in the back affix the pane of sapphire crystal, through which a connoisseur can admire the movement, which is brilliant in both senses of the word.

Few Alternatives to the Elegant High-Speed Movement
Such a classic watch calls for a classic leather strap that embodies high-quality workmanship and is secured by a folding clasp. The strap is fixed with a pin buckle and a moveable stainless-steel loop just as comfortably as the clasp can be opened again with side push-pieces.

The price of $6,500 for a modern watch with a manufacture movement and a time-zone function has a strong appeal. The market offers few options that are directly comparable. Tudor offers the same functionality and a manufacture caliber with the Black Bay GMT, but it’s clad in a sportier outfit and priced at $3,725 on a leather strap. Completely different functionality and design are available in the GMT versions of the Omega Planet Ocean ($7,700 on a rubber strap) or the famous Rolex GMT-Master II ($9,700 on a Jubilee bracelet). These competitors simultaneously pose an opportunity and a challenge for the Grand Seiko Elegance GMT.

SPECS:
Manufacturer: Seiko Watch Corporation, Shizuku-ishi Watch Studio,
Iwate Prefecture, Japan
Reference number: SBGJ219
Functions: Hours, minutes, central seconds hand, date display, time-zone function via jumping main hour hand with date change (forward and backward) and 24-hour hand
Movement: Grand Seiko 9S86 based on GS 9S85, automatic, Grand Seiko Quality Seal, 36,000 vph (5 Hz), 37 jewels, Spron 610 hairspring, Diachock shock absorption, Bipartite index fine adjustment, 55-hour power reserve, diameter = 28.4 mm, height = 6.60 mm
Case: Stainless steel, curved sapphire crystal above the dial antireflectively treated on the underside, sapphire crystal in the caseback,
six screws hold the back in place, water resistant to 30 meters
Strap and cla­­sp: Crocodile-skin strap, one-sided folding clasp that can be released by pressing lateral push-pieces
Rate results (deviation in seconds per 24 hours, fully wound/after 24 hours):
On the wrist +3.3
Dial up +1.8 / +3.8
Dial down +3.0 / +3.8
Crown up +4.6 / +3.5
Crown down +3.6 / +2.6
Crown left +4.8 / +4.1
Greatest deviation 3.0 / 1.5
Average deviation +3.6 / +3.6
Average amplitude:
Flat positions 282° / 264°
Hanging positions 262° / 243°
Dimensions: Diameter = 39.79 mm, height = 14.19 mm, weight = 92.5 g
Variations: With various dials; with a stainless-steel bracelet
Price: $6,500

In this picture from the 1970s, Jack Heuer (left) shows Formula 1 racing champions Niki Lauda (second from left) and Clay Regazzoni how their golden automatic chronograph is made.

While reading his daily newspaper on the morning of Jan. 10, 1969, Jack Heuer, general director of the Heuer watch brand, suffered such a shock that he almost dropped his coffee cup. A short article announced that Heuer’s competitor Zenith had developed the world’s first automatic chronograph and was already showing functional prototypes of El Primero. How could this be true? Jack Heuer’s company was part of a consortium that had been working on this very same task under tremendous time pressure and the strictest secrecy for the past three years. The launch of Caliber 11 was scheduled for March 3. How could Zenith have beaten them to the punch?

This story is one of the most fascinating narratives in the history of the modern watch industry. It took place in a year that, like the entire previous decade, was characterized by technical progress and profound social change, including the first manned landing on the moon, the maiden flight of the Boeing 747 jet and the flower power movement. The whole decade was supercharged by the economic boom, especially in the automotive industry, and by spectacular auto races, whose champions thrilled large crowds. The zeitgeist of new mobility and communication was omnipresent. The world was ticking to a steadily accelerating rhythm: more and more powerful cars rolled off the assembly lines and more and more people could afford to buy them.

Brand ambassador Steve McQueen with the Heuer Monaco, which encased the new Caliber 11.

The Swiss watch industry, which cultivated centuries-old traditions, tried to keep pace with the innovation of this new era: they knew that their industry had no choice but to renew itself if it hoped to keep up with the faster pace of the times, particularly with the looming specter of competition from the Far East. In retrospect, we can see that the Quartz Crisis, which would jeopardize the very survival of Switzerland’s watchmaking industry a decade later, had already begun to cast its shadow toward the West. Faultfinders would later claim that technological progress had caught the Swiss napping. Developing a modern automatic chronograph became a kind of Holy Grail for big-name manufacturers in the elite world of short time measurement.

Considering the wide selection of self-winding chronographs available today, it’s difficult to imagine how great a challenge this threefold problem posed. Never before had anyone succeeded in coaxing the practicality of an automatic winding system and the popular functionality of a chronograph into the narrow confines of a wristwatch’s case.

The “first” automatic chronograph in the world: Zenith premiered El Primero with great pride and pomp.

Gerd-Rüdiger Lang, who was employed by Heuer at the time and would later found the Chronoswiss brand, recalls the situation. “The automatic chronograph was the greatest horological invention of the 20th century, which had otherwise produced nothing genuinely groundbreaking in this field. Switzerland’s chronograph manufacturers hoped it would give them access to new markets and serve them as an innovative and sales-boosting bestseller – if they could launch it before Omega, which led the chronograph market at the time.”

Jack Heuer, former general director of the Heuer Swiss watch brand, was one of the key players in the development of the automatic chronograph.

A Complex Construction
Chronograph fans had no choice but to wear hand-wound models because the thorny technical dilemma of a self-winding “time writer” remained unresolved. The first hurdle was to overcome the energy problem. When a chronograph is switched on, its seconds hand and its counters for the elapsing minutes and hours consume much more energy than a classic time display, so they demand much greater performance from the self-winding mechanism. Watchmakers also had to leap a high bar by devising a design that would intelligently combine the two complex mechanisms, deploy the various additional components (especially the rotor) in an optimally space-saving arrangement, and provide the necessary “passageways” to accommodate the numerous drive shafts. All of this, it should not be forgotten, had to be accomplished within the diminutive volume of a wristwatch’s case. These ambitious goals occupied the brightest minds at R&D departments in the 1960s, where they pursued their quest for solutions while preserving the utmost secrecy.

We now know that the first company to begin developing a self-winding chronograph wristwatch was Zenith, which started the project in 1962 and planned to launch the world’s first automatic chronograph to coincide with the company’s centennial in 1965. But this ambitiously early date could not be kept: four more years would come and go before the project could be completed and the first prototype could be made available.

The joint development of Caliber 11 was advanced under the aegis of Willy Breitling (left). The Breitling Navitimer Chrono-Matic from 1969 (right) had a bezel that was marked with the characteristic slide rule.

A Coalition of Competitors
Project 99 was the code name under which some of the most important specialists in short-term measurement joined together: Breitling, Heuer-Leonidas and Hamilton-Buren. The establishment of this illustrious circle was preceded by a request from a highly specialized movement designer and true specialist of his era, Gérald Dubois, who directed the technical department at Dépraz & Cie. Founded in 1901 and based at Le Lieu in the Vallée de Joux, this company ranked among the biggest suppliers of chronographs and owed its reputation to numerous developments in the field, including the column-wheel mechanism and the first adjustable module chronograph (Caliber 48), which debuted in 1937. Gérald Dubois was the grandson of the company’s founder and had long been in favor of developing an automatic chronograph, but its realization required an investment that was too large for his company to finance on its own.

Gérald Dubois contacted Willy Breitling in 1965. Breitling, who was head of the Grenchen-based watch brand, was immediately enthusiastic about the project. The duo asked Jack Heuer, general director of Heuer-Leonidas, to join them. Heuer agreed because he shared their belief that the future belonged to the automatic chronograph. The fourth member of the group was Buren, the movement manufacturer that was acquired by the American brand Hamilton in 1966. The same year, after the costs had been contractually allocated and the patent rights had been granted, the consortium kicked off the development, which took place in secret. Gerd-Rüdiger Lang, who joined the Heuer company as a watchmaker in 1968, recalls that no one on the staff had the slightest inkling of the secret project.

Heuer Monaco Ad – 1969

This coalition of competitors marked the beginning of a unique collaboration among rival brands and suppliers. Their alliance bore fruit with the debut of Caliber 11 three years later. Breitling designated this movement as the Chrono-Matic. Heuer’s dials bore the same name, albeit with a slightly different spelling – Chronomatic.

An Unexpected Opponent
But a Japanese giant was not asleep. Seiko, which had been in the premium segment with its Grand Seiko models since the early 1960s and now competed with Swiss manufacturers, also began a similar development in the mid-1960s. Seiko’s secret project was code named 6139. A year earlier, when the world was watching the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Seiko had presented its first chronograph wristwatch, which still relied on manual winding. Meanwhile, the brand had also begun developing a totally different technology: quartz. But that, as they say, is another story.

Three Different Technical Approaches
All three competitors were striving to achieve the same goal, but each pursued its own technical approach. The magic number 36,000 came into play at Zenith. This figure needs no explanation among chronograph enthusiasts, who are well aware that it specifies the number of semi-oscillations completed per hour by the balance in automatic caliber El Primero. Its fast-paced balance vibrated at the previously unattainably speedy frequency of 10 beats per second, which enabled this automatic chronograph movement to accomplish the unprecedented feat of measuring elapsed time to the nearest 1/10th of a second. Another distinctive feature of this technology was the integrated architecture of the chronograph mechanism. El Primero was a self-contained ensemble with a ball-borne central rotor and a column wheel instead of a cam. An especially clever detail was that the movement needed neither a module nor an additional mechanism. And notwithstanding its high frequency, El Primero offered a remarkably long 50-hour power reserve and had been miniaturized so its innovative technology could fit into a space measuring just 6.5 mm by 29.33 mm. Each characteristic was a success and the entire ensemble was nothing short of spectacular. Moreover, El Primero was also aesthetically pleasing: the harmony embodied by the original construction, which still distinguishes El Primero calibers today, has raised the pulse rates of generations of chronograph fans.

The original El Primero had a tricompax dial and displayed the date between 4 and 5 o’clock. This layout has remained unchanged.

Many large watch manufacturers subsequently equipped their chronograph wristwatches with Zenith’s trailblazing masterpiece. Probably the best-known example is the Cosmograph Daytona: Rolex began encasing a modified version in its chronographs in 1987. This transformed the Daytona into a self-winding chronograph. The Daytona continued to encase Zenith’s movement until the year 2000, albeit with a reduced oscillating frequency of only 28,800 hourly vibrations and a balance wheel equipped with Microstella adjusting screws. Other brands, including Bulgari, Daniel Roth and Ebel, also relied on El Primero. Ebel launched a perpetual calendar wristwatch based on Zenith’s movement in 1989.

A Modular Construction with a Micro-rotor
In contrast to Zenith’s integrated architecture, the Project 99 consortium pursued an approach based on a modular concept similar to one used in early pocketwatches with complications. The chronograph mechanism was mounted on a plate in Caliber 11 (the Chrono-Matic) with oscillating pinion coupling. Three screws affixed this independent unit to the bridge side of the movement. The oscillating pinion coupled the chronograph to the gear train. To provide sufficient space, the team abandoned the concept of a central winding rotor positioned above the movement and opted instead for a “planetary rotor,” which Buren had developed under the leadership of technical director Hans Kocher in 1954. One consequence of the movement’s architecture with its integrated micro-rotor was that the crown had to be positioned on the left side of the case. This feature was later marketed using the slogan: “The chronograph that doesn’t need winding.” Simpler assembly and maintenance were the perceived advantages of the sandwich-style construction as “an independent frame that can be easily removed and replaced.” As at Heuer, this covert project was declared classified at Breitling. Everything related to the development of Caliber 11 was discussed in encrypted form during clandestine meetings in back rooms. Only a few confidants of watchmaker Marcel Robert and Willy Breitling were privy to the confidential endeavor.

The Heuer Monaco from 1969 not only set standards with Caliber 11, but was also one of the first square watches with a waterproof case.

Seiko chose a third path. The brand had secretly developed a watch that demonstrated Seiko’s high degree of technical sophistication and would prove its precision three years later when this timepiece with its yellow dial ticked on the wrist of American astronaut William R. Pogue in outer space. The 6139 also relied on an integrated construction with column wheel, central rotor and energy-efficient vertical coupling, as well as the “magic lever,” a specialty that Seiko had used since 1959 to increase the efficiency of the winding mechanism. Mounted directly on the rotor shaft, the magic lever tapped all the energy of the oscillating weight, regardless of the rotor’s direction of rotation. A date display and a day-of-the-week indicator with quick correction were also installed.

The Tension Mounts
Let’s go back to Jan. 10, 1969, the date on which Zenith’s press release announced, “The merit of this outstanding creation makes the entire Swiss watch industry shine on the world’s major markets, where the competition is growing increasingly fierce.” Jack Heuer called a breakfast meeting to decide how to proceed. The partners agreed to stick with their plan of simultaneous press conferences in Geneva and New York on March 3, 1969. In the presence of Heuer, Willy Breitling and Hans Kocher, the Caliber 11 Chrono-Matic was presented with great ceremony to the world’s journalists. Judging by their enthusiastic response, the reporters apparently weren’t bothered by the fact that the consortium had crossed the finish line nearly two months after its arch rival. Gérald F. Bauer, president of the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH), opened the event in Geneva at 5 p.m. local time. Praising the technical masterpiece, Bauer highlighted the team spirit that had made it possible to “launch this new high-performance product for the Swiss watch industry.” Heuer had prepared answers to questions about Zenith’s El Primero, but was surprised that the journalists didn’t ask any. The simultaneous press conference in Manhattan, which began at 11 a.m. Eastern Time, was also attended by high-ranking Swiss industry representatives, including the President of the U. S. Foreign Office of the Swiss watch industry and Switzerland’s Consul General in New York. The international edition of the Journal suisse d’horlogerie et de bijouterie dedicated its front page and a 16-page supplement to the event. The magazine’s headline declared: “Three Swiss companies worked behind closed doors and launched a watch that doesn’t really exist: the automatic chronograph.” Willy Breitling emphasized the importance of innovation for the industry in general and especially for the company that his grandfather had founded saying, “Certain stages in the development of a brand are decisive for its future. Today we are witnessing an event of capital importance, and I am sure you realize that it is a source of great joy for us.”

Heuer Caliber 11: Each company in the consortium encased the Chrono-Matic caliber in one of its best-selling watches.

Three Premieres
Each member of “Project 99” selected its best-selling watches to encase the Chrono-Matic. Breitling ensconced it in the Navitimer and Chronomat; the first collection also included a cushion-shaped model, a new interpretation of the square chronograph from 1966 and a tonneau with a divers’ bezel. Heuer put Calibre 11 inside the Carrera, the Autavia and the new Monaco. The Monaco blazed new trails not only with its modern self-winding movement but also with the world’s first water-resistant square case. Hamilton launched the elegant Hamilton Chrono-Matic with a legendary “panda” dial, which is available today in a nearly identical look. An unmistakable feature of all these models was the crown on the left side of the case, where it demonstrated that this automatic chronograph no longer needed manual winding.

Automatic Caliber 11 debuted inside Hamilton Chrono-Matic A from 1971, with a 37-mm stainless-steel case and a “panda” dial, which is enjoying popularity again today.

Silence Is Golden
All brands in the consortium presented the innovation in March 1969 in Basel at the Mustermesse, the “Sample Fair” that would later become Baselworld. Jack Heuer received a compliment from an unexpected source: Shoji Hattori, Seiko’s president, visited Heuer at the stand and congratulated him on his technical breakthrough. Heuer said, “Naturally, I was very flattered. But Mr. Hattori didn’t divulge even the slightest hint that Seiko was showing its 6139 at the fair.” Heuer subsequently expressed his admiration for Seiko’s “rather clever product strategy.” Before the international launch of a new watch, its maker typically tests it first on the domestic market to solve any remaining problems. As in the fable of the tortoise and the hare, Seiko’s apparent slowness ultimately paid off. According to Jack Heuer, the Japanese company brought sales of Heuer’s product almost to a standstill on the U.S. market a few years later, a disappointment that he also attributed to an unfavorable exchange rate. Heuer nevertheless ended the 1969 financial year with record-breaking results: the brand increased sales by 34 percent thanks to the Caliber 11 Chrono-Matic. The original caliber was manufactured until 1970 and afterward further developed into Caliber 12. Heuer continued producing the movement until 1985. The Autavia was the last model to encase Caliber 11. Breitling used it from the end of 1968 to 1978.

The Seiko 5 Speedtimer from 1969 was an integrated automatic column-wheel chronograph with vertical coupling and “magic lever.”

The Present
El Primero is the only one of these pioneering movements from 1969 that has been uninterruptedly manufactured from its debut to the present day, except for a brief hiatus during the Quartz Crisis. El Primero received a boost after Zenith was acquired by the LVMH Group in 1999. The high-frequency movement served as the basis for a flurry of new developments. These included additional modules to support diverse displays, as well as modifications with a partially skeletonized base plate so the escapement could be viewed through an aperture in the dial. El Primero Caliber 4021 was introduced with an additional power-reserve display and even with a tourbillon. Caliber 4031 combined a minute repeater with chronograph, alarm and second time zone. El Primero Stratos Flyback Striking 10th kept time during an extraordinary adventure on Oct. 14, 2012, when Felix Baumgartner jumped from the stratospheric altitude of 39 kilometers with this watch strapped to his wrist. His plunge made him the first human being to outpace the speed of sound. Baumgartner and his timepiece survived the acceleration, altitude, pressure and temperature differences unscathed. The watch worked just as well after landing as it did on take off.

The stopwatch function and the time display each have their own escapement system in the Zenith El Primero 9004, which enables the Defy El Primero 21 to measure elapsed intervals to the nearest 1/100th of a second.

Half a century after its premiere, El Primero remains the world’s most accurate serially manufactured chronograph thanks to its ability to measure brief intervals to the nearest 1/10th of a second. It also has won more awards and commendations than any other chronograph. Zenith set another record in 2017 with the debut of the Defy El Primero 21 chronograph, which can clock elapsed intervals not merely to the nearest 1/10th, but to the nearest 1/100th of a second. This mechanical feat is made possible by El Primero 9004, in which the stopwatch function has its own movement with a separate escapement that oscillates at a frequency of 360,000 vibrations per hour (50 Hz).

Although the original Caliber 11 is no longer manufactured, the brands that participated in its development are still justifiably proud of their innovation. TAG Heuer’s Product Director Guy Bove said, “TAG Heuer has presented numerous precise timepieces during the past 150 years, but probably none of them has left as an indelible a mark on watchmaking as the Chrono-Matic.” The Monaco, which once encased Caliber 11, soaked up some limelight in 2019, its 50th anniversary year. A different limited-edition Monaco was unveiled at each of several commemorative events in Europe, the United States and Asia. The historical and technical highlights of this icon are chronicled in the book Paradoxical Superstar, published in May 2019.

Monaco Calibre 11, the successor to the famous square timepiece that premiered in 2015, features automatic Sellita Caliber SW300 with a Dubois Dépraz module. Price: $5,900.

Grand Seiko’s Spring Drive Chronograph GMT SBGC231 in a titanium case is one of the Japanese manufacturer’s highlights this year. Price: $12,900.

Seiko’s Chairman and CEO Shoji Hattori says that the launch of the automatic chronograph movement was part of the success story that led “to the development 30 years later of Spring-Drive technology, which plays a central role in the launch of new versions of the Grand Seiko in 2019.”

The Winner
Now let’s return to the conundrum of who, in fact, developed the first automatic chronograph. Which brand stands on which step of the winners’ podium cannot be answered unequivocally from today’s vantage point. What is certain is that each brand achieved a success of its own. While the first prototype of El Primero was introduced at the beginning of 1969, Breitling, Hamilton and Heuer didn’t unveil their development until three months later, but they were able to present the largest number of functioning prototypes at the Mustermesse in Basel. And Seiko premiered its first self-winding chronograph wristwatches in May of the same historic year. How it was possible for several manufacturers to present the most important watch innovation of the postwar era all in the same year remains puzzling even today. From a purely horological perspective, El Primero has been “Number One” for 50 years: “It set standards not only in technical terms, but it was also a feast for the eyes, almost poetic in its beauty,” said Gerd-Rüdiger Lang.

This article was originally presented in the August 2019 issue of WatchTime.

Marking the celebration of 25 years dedicated to the refinement of caliber 9S, Grand Seiko unveils two new GMT creations within its Sport and Elegance Collections. As is typical for the brand, they draw their artistic inspiration from the majestic Mt. Iwate in Iwate Prefecture, where the mechanical timepieces of Grand Seiko are produced.

Sport Collection Caliber 9S 25th Anniversary Limited Edition Watch (SBGJ275)

The new Sport Collection Caliber 9S 25th Anniversary Limited Edition Watch, Ref. SBGJ275, features a dial that illustrates the sea of clouds sometimes seen at daybreak, when still, humid air forms dense clouds that overlap with one another to create a beautiful tapestry. Framed by a rotatable 24-hour bezel with an inlay of sapphire crystal, it features the central hour hand and an additional scale on the flange for the indications of a third time zone. The stainless steel case has a diameter of 44.2mm and offers a water resistance of 200 meters. as is typical for Grand Seiko, the self winding high-beat movement, caliber 9S86, is protected against magnetic fields up to 4,800 A/m. The manufacture movement offers a power reserve of 55 hours and an accuracy of +5 to –3 seconds per day. Its oscillating weight made from titanium and treated with an anodic oscillation process to achieve a light blue hue can be admired through a pane of sapphire in the case back. This exhibition case back is a first for a mechanical Grand Seiko with a pressure resistance rated up to 20 bar.

The Ref. SBGJ275 is limited to 2,000 pieces and will be available exclusively from the online Grand Seiko Boutique starting in September 2023 before availability extends to the Grand Seiko Boutiques and select retail partners the following month. Pricing is marked at approximately $9,400 when converted to USD.

Elegance Collection Caliber 9S 25th Anniversary Limited Edition Watch (SBGM253)

With a sunray dial in the blue hue of the sky as seen from the summit of Mt. Iwate, the second Anniversary Limited Edition, Ref. SBGM253, adopts the DNA of the Elegance Collection. A classic form prevails thanks to the mirror-polished bezel and case of this creation, gently curved lugs with a distortion-free mirror finish achieved by Zaratsu polishing, and a box-shaped sapphire crystal.

And, as with the Sport Collection’s newcomer, the centered blue GMT hand can be aligned with the blue 24-hour scale that surrounds the hour markers. The see-through case back provides a view of the self-winding 9S66 GMT movement, which has been outfitted with a titanium oscillating weight in Grand Seiko’s signature blue hue achieved by the same anodic oxidation treatment. With a vibration of 28,800 vibrations per hour and the same accuracy like the caliber 9S86, it offers a power reserve of 72 hours.

Also protected from magnetic fields, it beats in a more modestly proportioned case with a diameter of 39.5 mm. It is water resistant to 3 bar. Limited to 1,700 pieces, the watch will be available at Grand Seiko boutiques and selected retail partners worldwide from October 2023 at a price of approximately $6,800.

To learn more, visit Grand Seiko, here.