The Calibre 11 was a cam-actuated movement with a modular structure (i.e. We’ll start with Heuer’s Calibre 11, which was introduced in March 1969. The race for the first automatic chronograph was a three-way battle between Zenith, Heuer (in collaboration with Breitling and Hamilton), and Seiko, with each group taking a different approach to the challenge. Self-winding “automatic” movements had become standard in time-only wristwatches, but amazingly, a self-winding chronograph movement had yet to be invented. In 1969, an arms race was breaking out across Switzerland and Japan. Some dealers and collectors use the word “iconic” and “historically important” to describe a wide swath of brands and references, but in the El Primero’s case, it is not hyperbole to include those descriptors. In particular, the movement is one of the most important innovations in the history of Swiss watchmaking and the aesthetic remains generally congruent to this day, almost like a bizarro world Speedmaster. I don’t profess to be a devoted fan of vintage Zenith, but the A386 had a number of things that were attractive to me, both from a collectability and aesthetic standpoint. In fact, in 2014, I marked my top-five aspirational “grail” watches for the near future and the A386 made the cut. I was interested in the Zenith A386 El Primero long before watch collectors embarked on a Dunkirk-like retreat from non-Holy Trinity brands. From a financial perspective, there’s no shame in seeking out assets that are more likely to withstand an uncertain economic and political future, and in fact, some well-studied collectors can even thank this market trend, as it has prevented vintage prices for brands such as Zenith and Movado from following the same trajectory that brands like Universal Geneve and early Longines exhibited in years prior.
Some may decry this as a myopic approach to collecting, but I don’t blame people with six- or seven-figure collections for being cautious. Generally speaking, 2014-2018 had seen an explosion of interest in a wide variety of brands in the $10,000+ price bracket, the past couple of years saw many well heeled collectors fleeing back to the safe shores of stalwarts like Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, and (of course) Rolex. The vintage watch collecting market took an interesting turn in 20.
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