The brand produced about 24,000 watches last year and is planning to increase production 10% to 15% per year. Last year, Zenith saw sales increase 30% to 40% over 2021, marking its best year since the LVMH takeover. We gained a lot of market share during Covid.” “But then I realized it helped me to speed up the transformation. “I was desperate-it’s tough already when you are a strong brand, but if you are a recovering brand, it’s a disaster,” he says. Then Tornare and Zenith were confronted with the pandemic. In 2019, the brand marked the 50th anniversary of El Primero with fanfare and limited editions. Zenith was also the first manufacture to open its doors for public tours that showcase its rich heritage and technical savvy. Among these was the first customization partnership with George Bamford, a London-based watch customizer that also works with Zenith’s LVMH sister brands TAG Heuer and Bulgari. “We also launched a lot of initiatives as the first brand to do them to show Zenith has a new, more contemporary dynamic than some of our peers,” Tornare says. In the process, he streamlined distribution from 850 doors to 580 doors, including 35 boutiques. On the retail side, he had to convince partners that Zenith could perform well despite its checkered track record. “Not only do you sell watches to clients who are looking for that vintage touch, but you also reassure the ones buying new watches because it says this is where it comes from.” “Revival is a testimony to our watches, but it’s not a product line in itself,” Tornare explains.
EL PRIMERO CHRONOMASTER 2 SERIES
Meanwhile, Zenith’s Revival series of recreations of rare vintage models sprinkle across the four pillar ranges. Additionally, the new Pilot Big Date Flyback in steel ($11,500) and black ceramic ($13,500) capitalizes on Zenith’s chronograph expertise with an automatic El Primero column-wheel chronograph with a flyback function paired with a patented instantaneous-jumping big date at 6 o’clock. This year, Zenith expanded its longstanding Pilot collection with the no-nonsense 40mm Automatic Pilot in stainless steel ($7,500) and black microblasted ceramic ($9,600). When he started, that number had been winnowed to 200 references, but Tornare further whittled it down to 100 references and four core product lines: Defy, Chronomaster, Pilot, and Elite, a classical collection that is poised to make a comeback. He explains that 15 years ago, Zenith had a staggering 12 product lines with some 800 references.
“When people see too many models and too many product lines, they get confused and they don’t understand the brand,” Tornare says. “It was the most contemporary line, a bit of a laboratory for creativity and innovation on one side, and it also gave me time to redesign the Chronomaster collection that we relaunched in 2021.”Ī round of housecleaning was also in order. Under Biver’s direction, a few months before Tornare came on board, Zenith launched Defy 21, which contributed to redefining the brand’s image. “The heritage is great, the history is great, the manufacture is fantastic, we have the El Primero, but let’s translate all that into something people feel like buying.” “We took one subject after the other to turn this brand into what it’s becoming now,” Tornare says. An icon among the watch cognoscenti and collector class, El Primero’s exceptional performance did not go unnoticed by other prestige brands, including Rolex, which used a modified version of the movement for its Cosmograph Daytona from 1989 until 2000, when Rolex introduced its own. In more recent history, Zenith’s enduring claim to fame was developing, in 1969, the El Primero, the first automatic, integrated high-frequency chronograph movement. Over the decades, the brand captured awards for high-precision chronometry as it expanded globally. Georges Favre-Jacot founded the firm in 1865 in Le Locle, Switzerland, with a mission to produce the most precise watches the world had ever seen.įavre-Jacot pioneered vertically integrated watchmaking, bringing all the skills and crafts under one roof, defining the concept of manufacture, or “in-house,” movements. He set out to rejuvenate the brand by infusing it with a contemporary attitude and focusing on updated products and a marketing platform more attuned to the 21st century.Īs far as historical bona fides and watchmaking cred go, Zenith is richly endowed. Tornare, 50, found Zenith had become a bit quiet and dusty in an era when a new generation of watch buyers wanted bold, modern watches.
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