REVOLUTION_International_Vol 54

INTRODUCING
THE ZENITH X THE RAKE
AND REVOLUTION
CHRONOMASTER REVIVAL
REF. A3818 “COVER GIRL”
WORDS WEI KOH AND KEVIN CUREAU
In the pantheon of watchmaking’s most iconic watches,
many have received nicknames that eternally link them to
famous individuals, a material or even a shape. Take, for
example, names such as Paul Newman, Jo Siffert, Padellone,
Bronzo, Batman… Just think of all the timepieces associated
with these designations.
Among emblematic sports chronographs that have seen
the light of day since the birth of the watch industry, there is
only one timepiece bestowed with a sobriquet that inflames the
desire of men to such an extreme — that is, of course, Zenith’s
legendary El Primero Ref. A3818, otherwise known as the
“Cover Girl”, thanks to its appearance on the front of Manfred
Rössler’s book Zenith: Swiss Watch Manufacture Since 1865.
Why did the watch end up on the cover of a book dissecting
the history of this eminent watchmaking maison? If you thought
the reason was deeply linked to the narrative story that makes
up the Zenith brand, the final explanation is much simpler than
that. As Rössler, the author, puts it: “The beautiful blue colour
led to this decision. I like blue dials.” We can’t blame him.
For those of you who have had the chance to set eyes on
the “Cover Girl”, the watch can only be described as jawdroppingly
stunning. It uses the same angular, tonneaushaped
case as the Zenith Ref. A384, but features one of the
most unique dials in modern watchmaking, with striations
that catch the light quite magnificently. Its defining feature
is a stepped or uneven racing track demarcated with thin
radial lines that look like a shark’s tooth. These tiny lines,
designed almost like a soundwave, lead the eye towards the
combination of a pulsation and tachymeter scale above the
minute track. It is important to note that there are precisely
300 of these ultra-thin markers on the dial, allowing
you to read the chronograph seconds to an accuracy of
1/10th of a second, which the legendary high-frequency
5Hz (36,000vph) El Primero movement is capable of.
THE MODERNIST 79