Zenith Chronomaster Original 03.3200.3600/69.M3200

The storyWhy this reference matters

In January 1969 Zenith introduced the El Primero with three watches: the tonneau-cased A384, the gradient-dial A385, and the A386, round, with its three registers in silver, anthracite and blue. The A386 took the glory and the trait that became the house signature: the registers overlap one another, and colour is the only thing that separates them at a glance. Fifty-two years later, that is the watch the Chronomaster Original reconstructs, from digital scans of an original example.

That there was anything left to reconstruct is down to one man. Zenith passed to the American Zenith Radio Corporation in 1971, and in 1975 management ordered the El Primero stopped, the lines dismantled, the specific tooling scrapped and the drawings destroyed, so the firm could concentrate on quartz. Charles Vermot, a watchmaker at the company, removed presses, cams, gauges and documentation from the factory, catalogued them piece by piece and bricked them up in the Le Locle attic. In 1984 he took them out intact and production resumed without starting over.

The modern version changes what it has to change. With the calibre 3600 in place of the 400, the central hand now turns once every ten seconds, and at that speed a tachymeter is useless. Zenith replaced it with a tenths scale round the edge of the dial. The odd result: the most vintage Chronomaster in the catalogue is also the one that departs from the original in the detail your eye lands on first.

SpecificationsThe numbers, in one table

IdentificationHow to tell it apart

A case of 38 mm by 12.9 mm tall and around 47 mm lug to lug, no rotating bezel, pump pushers and a fluted crown, domed sapphire front and back, 50 metres of water resistance. Those 47 mm across the lugs are why a 38 mm watch plants itself on the wrist more firmly than the number promises.

The codes: /69 is the silvered dial with tricolour registers and /21 the matte black; M3200 is the steel bracelet, C902 and C903 the leather straps. The rose gold case starts 18.3200. This reference is the silvered tricolour on the bracelet.

On the dial: small seconds at 9, a 60-second register at 3 and a 60-minute register at 6, a trapezoidal date window at 4:30 and a tenths scale round the rim. If the reference reads 400 rather than 3600 — the ones starting 03.2150.400, for instance — it is the previous 38 mm Chronomaster generation, and that one did have a tachymeter and a conventional chronograph hand.

CollectingWhat collectors check

Look at the edge of the dial first. If there is a tachymeter there, it is not a Chronomaster Original however identical the case looks; it is the model this one replaced. That is the most repeated confusion in second-hand listings, and it is not always dishonest.

The case was reproduced with broad flat surfaces and very crisply polished bevels. A bad polish rounds those edges off and the watch loses in one go what made it expensive to build. Take an example with honest wear over one that has been near a village lathe.

Check that the tenths hand lands exactly on zero, that the folding clasp does not wobble and that the spare links are there. Because the reference is still current, the box, a stamped warranty and the alternative strap move the value more than people assume.

Common questionsWhat people ask us about this reference

Keep readingWhere to go from here

Close relativesThe ones it gets confused with