I don’t know why, I just remember blurting out ‘4’ whenever anyone asked. Growing up my favourite number was always 4. As with all Zenith caliber’s, it is fully developed and manufactured in-house. The Chronomaster Sport is not a limited edition, is available now and has a brand new El Primero 3600 movement. However, that was 10 years ago, and the Striking 10th was a limited edition of only 1969 steel watches. The Sport is not even the first El Primero to have this feature since the limited edition Zenith El Primero Striking 10th from 2010 had the same function and a very similar dial. It’s not the most precise mechanical chronograph either, Zenith made a 1/100 chronograph in 2018 with the Defy 21. The Sport is not the first 1/10th chronograph, Tag Heuer, Longines and Zenith themselves have made them before. Instead of making one revolution per 60 seconds as a regular chronograph, the Sport’s hand rotates once every 10 seconds, in 1/10th of a second increments.

In fact, it will take you exactly a 1/10th of a second to realize what that long red-tipped center sweep hand is now timing tenths of seconds rather than seconds.

No Ordinary ChronographĪttempt to time anything on this watch and it will become immediately apparent that this is no chronograph in the 1969 model’s image. Is there a more iconic chronograph dial? The Rolex Daytona and the Omega Speedmaster would argue against that I suppose but I don’t think so… and talking of the Daytona, the new El Primero bears more than a passing resemblance to it with that black ceramic bezel. With the Sport, Zenith have re-used the classic blue, anthracite and light grey overlapping subdials of that original 1969 a386 El Primero chronograph.

There have been many intermediate Zenith models in that time, however this latest Chronomaster Sport model is comfortingly familiar. It’s a long time since the El Primero debuted as the world’s first automatic chronograph back in early 1969.

Movement: Zenith 3600 1/10th second chronograph.

Hands-OnZenith Chronomaster Sport (1/10th Second Chronograph)

Zenith chronomaster sport