Founded in 1865 by Georges Favre-Jacot in the Swiss Jura Mountains. The name Zenith comes from he word that designates the highest point in the universe, ZENITH.With rapid success, the company already had over one thousand employees by 1875, producing pocket watches, pendulum clocks and counter instruments for the Navy.

In 1896, with enormous success, Georges Favre-Jacot was awarded a gold medal at the Swiss National Exhibition in Geneva. Four years later, he received honors at the Universal Exhibition in Paris.

According to the legend, in 1911, Favre-Jacot was walking one night under a starry sky in the Swiss mountains and the idea came to him to give to his company the logo of a star, which still dons the brand's watches today.

By 1920, the company had already produced two million timepieces. While gaining momentum at a rapid pace, the company expanded and opened branches in Geneva, Moscow, Paris, Vienna, London and New York.

An innovative breakthrough came for Zenith in 1969, when the brand introduced the El Primero. Throbbing at 36,000 vibrations per hour, the El Primero was the first integrated automatic chronograph, a triumph over the challenge to fit in the smallest possible space a maximum of technical functionality. Today it still is the fastest automatic chronograph and the most precise in the world.

In 1999, the Zenith company changed hands and was taken over by the LVMH Group (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy). However, the new owners kept tradition and innovation in their top priority and launched 4 new movements and 14 new models representing 52 new variations at the Basel Watch Fair in 2002.

In 2003, Zenith launched the Chronomaster Open El Primero, a technological innovation enabling a view of the beating heart of the movement through an opening in the dial. This model rapidly becomes the icon of the Zenith Manufacture and encounters a resounding success.

Proving they are still among the finest watches in the world, Zenith won the award for the DEFY Xtreme Open El Primero Stealth in the Public's Prize category at the Grand Prix de l'Horlogerie in Geneva 2007.

In 2008, the genius watchmaers at Zenith revolutionized the word innovation by introducing the 8800 Tourbillon Zero-G (zero gravity) movement, a major innovation in the world of watchmaking. This revolutionary system, which includes a gyroscope cage tourbillon and constant horizontal escapement, means the mechanism avoids the effects of gravity and thus gives considerably greater accuracy.