Seiko, Zenith, and the Swiss Consortium: Who Developed the First Automatic Chronograph?
Perhaps not the Swiss this time…
Who doesn't know the legendary Ricola advertisement: "Who invented it?" The answer was, of course, always the same: the Swiss.
Even when it comes to the first automatic chronograph, the answer seems self-evident to many. If you ask collectors or look at older literature, the almost reflexive answer is: "Zenith – El Primero." At least, that's what Bernhard also argues in the Lenke and Strohm video The new MoonSwatch – will it soon replace the original?
And this is where it gets interesting.
Because the answer crucially depends on what question you are actually asking.
Only if you were to ask: Which automatic chronograph was first publicly presented? (but who really cares about that?) Then the answer is indeed Zenith El Primero, presented on January 10, 1969 – a technical masterpiece, there is absolutely no doubt about that. The El Primero, beating at an unusually high frequency of 36,000 vibrations per hour (5 Hz), was ahead of its time and remains one of the most significant chronograph calibers in watch history.
However, if you ask: Who was the first to develop a functional and production-ready automatic chronograph?, then the historical sources available today clearly point to Seiko.
The Japanese historian Sadao Ryugo gained access to Seiko's internal development documents. His research shows that the first functional prototype of the 6139 caliber was completed as early as August 1968. Production-ready samples followed in September 1968, and series production of movements and cases began in October 1968. So, when Zenith presented the El Primero to the world in January 1969, Seiko had long been in production. A few months later, the Seiko 6139 was already available for purchase in Japanese stores – making it the first automatic chronograph to actually make it to customers' wrists.
It should also be noted that in 1969, not just two, but three parties were in a neck-and-neck race for the first automatic chronograph. In addition to Zenith and Seiko, a Swiss consortium of Heuer, Breitling, Hamilton-Büren, and Dubois-Dépraz launched its modular Caliber 11 – the "Chronomatic" – simultaneously in Geneva and New York on March 3, 1969, which later gained fame, especially in the Heuer Monaco. Unlike this modular Swiss movement, both the El Primero and the Seiko 6139 were fully integrated designs with a column wheel – technically the significantly more challenging approach.
It is interesting that these findings were largely unknown for a long time. Seiko at the time did not conduct spectacular international marketing around the 6139. While the Swiss manufacturers aggressively communicated their development, Seiko simply sold its watches in the domestic market. Only decades later did the internal development documents allow for a reconstruction of the actual timeline.
A charming anecdote illustrates this restraint: At the 1969 Basel Fair, Seiko President Shoji Hattori personally congratulated Jack Heuer at his booth on his technical masterpiece – without mentioning a word that Seiko had long since been in production with its own automatic chronograph, the 6139, and was even presenting it at the very same fair. Heuer later expressed great admiration for Seiko's "extremely clever product strategy."
Of course, this in no way diminishes Zenith's achievement. The El Primero remains a milestone in watch history and one of the greatest chronograph calibers ever. But if the question is "Who developed the first automatic chronograph?", then according to current research, the answer is Japanese, not Swiss.
Or, to slightly modify the Ricola advertisement:
"Who invented it?"
This time, the answer is unequivocally: Seiko.
*P.S.: For all watch enthusiasts who speak Japanese and want to delve deeper: The book by Seiko historian Sadao Ryugo, "The History of the 5 Sports Speed-Timer – Birth of the Seiko Automatic Chronograph" describes the history in detail and is available in Japan for approx. EUR 30.