An Act of Defiance
“You are wrong to believe that the automatic mechanical chronograph will
die out completely.”
Charles Vermot wrote these prophetic words to the Zenith Radio
Corporation, which purchased the Zenith Watch Company in 1971. Five years
later, the new owners ordered the watch company to dispose of all its tools
and dies for mechanical watches. Vermot, who was in charge of Zenith
workshop 4, asked for permission to maintain a small workshop where all the
tools necessary for the manufacture of El Primero would be kept. His request
remained unanswered.
Fortunately for Zenith, Vermot decided by himself to safeguard the tools
necessary for the manufacture of El Primero, and against all orders he
secretly moved all the presses, cams, operating plans, cutting tools and
manufacturing plans necessary to build the El Primero to an attic fifty-two
steps atop the one Zenith building not connected to all the others.
Then Vermot built a wall to hide his work.
Assisted only by his brother Maurice, also a Zenith employee, Charles told
no one of his prescient act of defiance. The entire process required about six
months of secretive work.
“My father did not tell a soul,” recalls Michel Vermot, Charles’ son, who is
also a watchmaker.
“Not even his wife or any of his kids. He was returning from work much later
than usual, and my mother was wondering what was going on. But he knew
that we lived in a very close-knit community, and if any one person heard
about it, everyone would know.”
This occurred amid the quartz crisis of the 1970s and 1980s, during which
tens of thousands of watchmakers lost their jobs as mechanical watch
companies closed across Switzerland.
“If Michel’s father were to lose his job because he was not listening to his
boss, it would have been very difficult to find another job,” adds Zenith CEO
Julien Tornare. “He took a huge personal risk.”
Vermot told no one until about ten years later when new owners of Zenith
called him.
“A Zenith worker named Gerber knew that Vermot might have some
information about how the new owners could restart El Primero production,”
explains Tornare. “Gerber asked if Vermot could help to restart production
(after Rolex requested supplies of El Primero for its Daytona). He said of
course, and then drove to Zenith and broke the wall down.”
Only then did Vermot’s wife understand why he was late on so many
evenings ten years prior. “It was only on that day that told us that he had to
return and help the new owners revive the El Primero,” explains Michel.
Zenith re-launched the El Primero in 1984. The company eventually
rewarded Vermot with a new El Primero watch, and a trip to New York.
Zenith and watch collectors however have been reaping the rewards of
Vermot’s act of defiance with decades of new El Primero watches.
58 | INTERNATIONAL WATCH | SUMMER 2019
Charles Vermot in the 1980s. He saved the El Primero
Michel Vermot, son of Charles Vermot, wearing a
special Zenith ‘Charles Vermot’ El Primero.