Watchonista One-On-One: Talking Timelines with Zenith’s Romain Marietta

If you were in New York a few weeks ago, you would certainly be aware of the “Masters of Chronographs” immersive exhibition created by Zenith and hosted by Phillips. For one thing, the highly-anticipated event was widely promoted across the city on billboards and bus stops, piquing the interest of enthusiasts and newbies alike.
 

The pop-up offered an unparalleled collection of vintage Zenith timepieces. But more than that, the exhibition helped put the history and influence of the El Primero movement into the context of our world today. Moreover, the general public had the chance to attend watchmaking clinics and take a tour of the timepieces with Zenith’s VP of Product Development & Heritage, Romain Marietta.
 

Watchonista took the opportunity to sit down with Marietta to gain better understanding of Zenith’s historic timepieces and learn how preserving watchmaking know-how is crucial to the brand’s future strategy.

Even if you thought you knew everything about Zenith’s history – from its birth in Le Locle in 1865 to its present-day collaborations with independent brands such as Kari Voutilainen and Bamford Watch Department – the exhibition still managed to educate.

However, why the pop-up was so informative was because it not only reflected on Zenith’s iconic 1969 El Primero movement – a mechanism so advanced that it’s still state-of-the-art today – but also the importance of lesser-known chronographs and how they were used in daily life.
 

“We tend to associate chronographs with space exploration and auto racing. But the complication doesn’t need to be that complicated,” said Marietta. “Society has evolved, but the chronograph has remained timeless.”

Sitting in Phillips’ roomy, sunlit exhibition space in Midtown Manhattan, Marietta gave the example of Mahatma Gandhi’s sterling silver Zenith alarm pocket watch, which the famous civil rights activist used to time his meditations.

Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the spectrum, there are timepieces used to measure the productivity of postal workers.
 

“And after the last two years, our relationship to time is completely different,” Marietta added. “Yes, everything is linked to time. And yes, we are ruled by time. But we can still wear a classic chronograph just for the sake of it.”

However, it’s important to remember that a watch is more than just a tool. “Watches are meant to tell you the time but also your stories, and that’s what is so interesting about them,” said Marietta. “A great watch helps you check in with daily life.”
 

Marietta’s words hit home, and I thought of something Winston Churchill once wrote: “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” And according to Marietta, Zenith’s past mistakes are also an important part of planning for the future. The most notable example of Zenith learning from its past is the story of how the El Primero was almost lost forever.
 

In the 1970s, during the quartz crisis, Zenith’s then-parent company decided not only to cease production of the chronograph but to scrap all the machines and plans used in its production. Hearing about this, Charles Vermot, a watchmaker who had worked on the original production of the El Primero, gathered all the technical plans and tools necessary to produce every component of the El Primero movement and hid them in a walled-off section of the manufacture’s attic.

“It was an act of bravery to go against the direction of your employer and put yourself at great risk of losing your job,” said Marietta of Vermot’s rebellion.