In 1865 Georges Favre-Jacot, at the age of only 22, created what was to later become the core concept of the watch-making term ‘Manufacture’, and give rise to Zenith watches. Favre-Jacot brought various artisans involved in the watch-making industry together under one roof. He provided the basic facilities, including heat and light, that enabled these artisans to focus entirely on the design and making of their timepieces.

The ‘manufacture’ was born. The word manufacture derives from the French language where the word literally means a ‘manufacturing company’. In the watch-making industry ‘manufacture’ has come to be used to denote a factory where watches are made almost completely if not entirely - in particular, the watch ‘movement’, the principal elements and mechanism of a watch. Because Zenith, conceives, manufactures and assembles its own movements in its workshops in Le Locle, in Switzerland, it can be called a Swiss Watch Manufacture. A term and a guarantee of excellence that is rare for a watch brand today. Then, having created what he felt was the perfect watch movement, Georges Favre-Jacot went out and gazed up towards the starlit sky. The story goes; he saw a gigantic constellation turning around the Pole star. For Georges, the stars rotating around the axis of the Pole star recalled the movement of the pivots and the wheels on their axes in the movement he had just created. It was then he decided then to call his new movement, and its Manufacture, after the word that designates the highest point in the universe, zenith. He also adopted the star as the company’s logo. Georges Favre-Jacot retired in 1929, by which time Zenith had achieved watch-making history winning prestigious prizes and medals for timekeeping precision at international shows in Geneva, Paris, Barcelona, and Neuchвtel. In 1969, Zenith produced the world's first automatic chronograph movement, the El Primero. Besides this first, what makes this particular movement special is that it oscillating at 36,000 alternations per hour, and so it is able to measure short time intervals to a tenth of a second, an unsurpassed world record in 1969. In 1995, Zenith launched a new generation of ultra-thin movements, the Elite, which was recently voted best mechanical movement by the professional press. Zenith has been awarded over 1,500 prizes and commendations - making Zenith the most awarded Swiss brand. As a result of this exceptional reputation Zenith produces three of the most important mechanical movements of the luxury watch industry. These are the automatic integrated chronograph El Primero, the mechanical ultra-slim Elite movement, and the hand-wound 22-line 5011 K movement. Not satisfied with producing the world’s most sought after movements; in 2005 Zenith launched their first Haute Couture watch: the Starissime for, women. It is a tourbillion that has been decorated with 230 diamonds.

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