Through the acquisition, and at the direction of Zenith leadership, the company began work on an automatic chronograph movement that was to commemorate the watchmaker's 100th anniversary.

[2] While other brands slowly shuttered production due to the quartz crisis, Zenith was continuing to produce wristwatches as it struggled to survive.

[citation needed] In 1999, as watch consortiums (led by Swatch Group) began to acquire brands, LVMH purchased Zenith for $48.4 million USD,[3] which continues to be a part of the luxury goods conglomerate today.

[citation needed] In the 1920s, Zenith developed the Calibre 26x series of chronometers based on an 8-day car clock, which were used for both marine and observatory competitions.

[citation needed] In the 1940s, Zenith continued their efforts to develop precision movements, and won five straight (1950-1954) Neuchatel Observatory prizes with their Caliber 135.

One of the original watchmakers who worked on the movement, Charles Vermot, took it upon himself to save the brilliant calibre when the owners of the brand decided to abandon the idea of a mechanical chronograph and focus on Quartz timepieces in 1975.

The El Primero movement's high rate allows a resolution of 1⁄10 of a second and a potential for greater positional accuracy over the more common standard frequency of 28,800 vibrations per hour (4 Hz).

[11][12][13][14][15] In 1991, Zenith began development of a modular, slim, adaptable, and multipurpose in-house movement that could be housed within a wide variety of timepieces across their various collections.

Led by technical director Jean-Pierre Gerber, and aided by the manufacturer's first utilization of CAD, they developed an ultra-thin movement that ranged from 2.83mm to 6.20mm of thickness, depending on the inclusion of complications.

Upon Dufour's departure to Rolex in 2014, incoming CEO Aldo Magada reversed this decision, and the Elite is still being built by the company today.