![]() ![]() I loved my time with the El Primero Striking Tenth, and consider it one of the absolute coolest watches around right now. You have seen that Zenith now offers a Striking Tenth with a flyback mechanism, but in a much heftier, sportier case called the Stratos - which, despite the great movement and vintage dial, just doesn't have the same appeal to me. I was told that Zenith is now reaching the end of production of all 1,969 pieces and that at no point in the future will they ever build a watch using the Striking Tenth movement with this vintage case and dial again. ![]() Only 1,969 pieces will be made in stainless steel, while 500 will be made in gold. What I haven't mentioned yet, which will matter to some, is that the Striking Tenth is a limited edition chronograph. All alligator straps from Zenith are very thin and soft, yet come lined in rubber to make for a longer lifecycle - they absorb sweat better than any alligator strap I've ever worn. On the tail of the red center hand you will find the Zenith star, just as you will on the crown, the buckle, and the rotor. Imagine the possibilities - A Striking Tenth Movement In A 38mm Case?The detailing of this watch is really very nice. I simply couldn't help myself from playing with the chonograph! Press play below to see why. I began timing elevator rides, walks around the corner, and telephone conversations - all to 1/10th of a second. The sweeping hand on this watch is nothing short of mesmerizing and one of the most entertaining complications on any watch I have ever worn. Wearing the watch in my daily activities for a week's time, I can tell you there isn't another chronograph I would've rather been wearing. Understanding how the Striking Tenth does what it does is one thing, but seeing it and living with it is quite another. The Striking Tenth is the first chronograph from Zenith to take full advantage of the capabilities found inherently in the El Primero movement, and while the idea for such a display was patented in 2002, it took until 2010 for the brand to fully implement it in a meaningful way, with this watch. The silicon clutch wheel has 100 teeth on it, which translates into 100 beats per the ten second rotation, or ten strikes per second - which provided Zenith with a little naming inspiration for this model. It is also driven by a small wheel for less inertia. Silicon was used because it is 3.5x lighter than a tradtional wheel, and since this one is continually running, it would cause less wear on the movement. Zenith's beautifully finished caliber 4052 B can be seen through a sapphire caseback The blue double-layered clutch wheel, which can be seen at the top in the picture above, is made completely of silicon and runs both the continually running seconds register and sweeping hand. I found myself timing everything to a 1/10th of a second, just because I could. Essentially, the sweeping hand here moves at 6x the pace of a normal chornograph's hand, and thanks to the clearly marked flange on the rim of the dial and a chronograph clutch-wheel that is perpetually engaged (even when the chrono is not running), stopping the 1/10th second hand and reading it precisely is incredibly easy. The idea behind this watch is to have a center seconds hand that rotates around the dial not once every 60 seconds, but once every ten seconds, allowing the reader to measure 1/10th of a second accuracy with ease. ![]() These 11 new components allow the El Primero, which has had a frequency of 36,000 vibrations per hour since its launch over forty years ago, to take full advantage of this incredibly high frequency (FYI - when Rolex used the El Primero movement in its Daytona, they modified it to beat at a slower 28,000 vph). And, inside is not your standard El Primero - it's your standard El Primero plus 11 new components. This El Primero isn't about tracking hours, it's about tracking a fraction of a second. Here, you'll see that there exists no hours register, and that is because the Striking Tenth does not account of hours at all with its chronograph function. The Striking Tenth's Sub-Dial Layout Is Different Than Other El Primeros To Accommodate The Innovative Movement 40 Years + 11 Components ![]()
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