Zenith El Primero Chronomaster 14/01 0240 400

Anyone with an interest in Zenith, and in particular their chronographs, has likely heard of the story of Charles Vermot, the rogue employee of Zenith who disregarded instruction from his bosses to destroy tooling for the El Primero Chronograph and instead hid them in an attic in the manufacture. This tooling and design plans ultimately saved Zenith, and allowed for the El Primero to be put back in production, something all of us watch fans should be eternally grateful for as they've gone on to power some of the most significant watches ever made.

The El Primero Chronomaster 14/01 0240 400 is a bit of a hidden gem, known amongst collectors, but not so much the general public. Good for us, as it's one of our favourite El Primero powered Zenith's of the modern era. 

Utilising a beautifully stepped stainless steel case in 40mm, it houses a silver dial with a tachymetre scale across it's outer edge, within which sits an hour and minute track with gorgeous applied Breguet numerals. The centre of the dial is guilloche, with the sunken sub-dials featuring a Guilloche centre, silvered outer track and dark rhodium coated hands for maximum legibility, as does the minute, hour and chrono hands.

Powering it is the El Primero 400 automatic chronograph movement, and it's mounted to a Zenith 'gator strap with steel Zenith pin buckle.

These are available in several configurations, but this with its combination of the intricate case, Breguet's, guilloché and dark rhodium hands is what makes it so special.

This particular piece would date from the very late 90's to early 2000's and presents in TZ 'Good' condition. The case is in amazing condition, with a few minor marks and a small ding near 1 on the lower portion of the bezel/upper mid-case, which is the reason for the 'Good' rather than 'Excellent' grading on the TZ scale. Rear of the lugs show some strap change marks.

Looks to have had a service at some point, which was a touch careless. The dial shows a small mark in the 'R' of 'Tachymetre', some minor rubbing to the 10 on the hour sub-register, and a small chip on the near the seconds sub-dial. There's also a small hair/piece of lint currently sitting near 11. They're not overly visible to the naked eye, and we only spotted it with a loupe. The movement shows marks and scratches under a loupe. Please see images for full condition details.

Chrono starts, stops and resets as it should. Keeping COSC time.

Comes with outer box, inner box, blank temporary warranty card, card holder and Watch Vault cleaning cloth.

Brand: Zenith

Circa: 90's/00's

Model #: 14/01 0240 400

Case Material: Stainless Steel

Case details: 40mm

Movement: El Primero 400 self winding chronograph

Dial: Silver

Paraphernalia: Outer box, inner box, blank temporary warranty card, card holder and Watch Vault cleaning cloth

TZ Grading: Good