This specific watch, the A386, is not only highly collectable and sought-after, but it has also been a source of profound inspiration for Zenith over the years.

Zenith El Primero A386, with classic tri-colour dial – Photo by Hodinkee Shop This trilogy comprises the A384, a tonneau-shaped panda-dial model, the A385, featuring the same case but with an original gradient brown dial (possibly the first of its kind) and the A386, the most classic of the three models, with a round case but also the watch that first showed the signature tri-colour sub-counters, something that has become a hallmark of Zenith.

If the Chronomaster Sport is a modern and sporty watch that is often discribe as the best possible alternative to the Daytona, the Zenith Chronomaster Original is the closest you can get to the watch that started it all at Zenith in the late 1960s, a watch that was part of a trilogy equipped with the El Primero automatic chronograph movement, and the most famous of all three, the reference A386. The latter is the base for a new, online-exclusive edition that pays tribute to another emblematic feature, the tri-colour dial, with the Zenith Chronomaster Original E-commerce – which we’ll show in this hands-on article and that will be explained in a video with the brand’s product development and heritage director, Romain Marietta. And this year, Zenith has been working hard in keeping this spirit alive, focusing all its resources on the Chronomaster collection first by launching the Chronomaster Sport, a sporty and contemporary chronograph then by releasing the Chronomaster Original, a watch that reinterprets the iconic A386 steel El Primero reference from 1969, with faithful design and upgraded mechanics. Zenith and the chronograph complication is a long-lasting love story, the epitome of this connection dating back to 1969, when the Le Locle-based brand released one of the earliest automatic chronographs, the emblematic El Primero calibre.

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