Captain Winsor Annual Calendar

Captain Winsor Annual Calendar

The line of Captain chronographs is now enriched with a new horological complication. After the power reserve, the moon phases and the second time zone comes the turn of an ingenious complication, the annual calendar, which displays the date, the day of the week and the month while requiring just one annual adjustment. Named Captain Winsor Annual Calendar, this timepiece marks the start of a collaboration between the Musée International d'Horlogerie (MIH) and the Manufacture Zenith. This alliance has given rise to a watch associating the most accurate series-produced calibre with a useful and innovative complication.

The annual calendar
The origins of this horological complication, which lends this Captain Winsor chronograph such a distinctive touch, lie in the Musée International d'Horlogerie in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Its curator, Ludwig Oeschlin, created a particularly ingenious complication: an annual calendar displaying the day of the week, date and month, that requires only one adjustment per year. This complication is more accessible to many chronograph enthusiasts than the perpetual calendar. To ensure excellent readability, this display is provided by three concentric discs. The outer disc shows the date, the middle one the month, and the inner one the day of the week. This mechanism is both simple and complex: for 31-day months, the date disc moves the month disc forward; for 30-day months, the month disc makes the “31” jump. The only manual adjustment required is for the transition from February to March. The clever, pared-down design of this complication comprises just nine mobile elements, whereas most calendar require between 30 and 40.

The “engine” powering this chronograph expresses the full measure of Zenith's horological expertise: it is the famous high-precision El Primero movement made in-house by the Manufacture for over 40 years. El Primero is the only series-produced movement to beat at 36,000 vibrations per hour, meaning one beat every tenth of a second. Zenith reserves this automatic calibre for its own timepieces. The Captain Winsor model is equipped with the automatic El Primero Calibre 4054 version, adorned with Côtes de Genève and circular-graining and visible through the sapphire crystal case-back.

The Zenith Captain line
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 age, imbued with the thrill of adventure and the call of the open sea, that Zenith wished to evoke in creating the Captain line first launched in 1952. The contemporary chronograph versions carry strong references to the 1950s vintage models through a wealth of refined details, including guilloché dials, dauphine hands, and hand-applied facetted hour-markers.

The Captain Winsor Annual Calendar is available in two versions: with a silver-toned or midnight blue dial framed by a steel case; or a silver-toned dial and an 18-carat pink gold case. This timepiece embodies horological ingenuity dedicated to ensuring optimal user friendliness and maximum legibility.

Captain Winsor, the result of fruitful cooperation between MIH and Zenith
The decision to incorporate this complication into a Zenith Captain chronograph stems from an agreement between the Manufacture and the MIH. The latter is also planning to welcome the Manufacture Zenith within its two permanent exhibitions dealing with hours and seconds.