Captain Winsor Annual Calendar

 
Stemming from fruitful cooperation between the Musée International d’Horlogerie (MIH) and the Manufacture Zenith, the Captain Winsor Annual Calendar Boutique Edition combines the most precise series-produced calibre with a complication that is both useful and innovative: the annual calendar. The creative mind behind it is none other than the curator of the Musée International d’Horlogerie (MIH) in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Ludwig Oechslin. This passionate enthusiast has designed an annual calendar displaying the day of the week, the date and the month, while requiring only one annual adjustment. This complication is intended to be more accessible than the perpetual calendar for a large number of chronograph lovers. In order to ensure excellent readability, this display is provided by three concentric discs. The outer disc indicates the date, the middle one the month, while the innermost disc shows the day of the week. The mechanism is both simple and complex: for 31-day months, the date disc moves the month disc forward, while for 30-day months, the month disc makes the date disc “skip” the 31st. Only the transition from February to March requires manual adjustment. Based on a clever and elegantly restrained construction, this complication comprises just nine mobile elements, whereas most calendars require between 30 and 40.
 
The mechanism powering this chronograph represents the ultimate expression of Zenith’s horlogical expertise: the high-precision El Primero movement, which has been produced within the Manufacture for over 40 years. El Primero is the only series-made movement to beat at a frequency of 36,000 vibrations per hour, meaning a rate of one beat every tenth of a second. The Captain Winsor Annual Calendar Boutique Edition houses the automatic El Primero Calibre 4054. This in-house movement, circular-grained and adorned with Côtes de Genève, is visible through the sapphire crystal case-back, itself surrounded by the engraved inscription “Captain – special edition”.
 
In its early days, the reputation of the Manufacture in Le Locle was notably built on the reliability of its marine chronometers, which served to calculate the position of ships at sea. It was this legendary era, this sense of adventure and of the high seas that Zenith wished to recapture in creating the Captain line in 1952. Representing a successful alliance between the knowledge and creative skills of two veritable watchmaking institutions, the Captain Winsor Annual Calendar Boutique Edition embodies an ingenious blend of user-friendliness and optimal readability.