Wat @PeterLC zei. Ik heb hier al meters over volgeschreven, over de El Terciario. .
Seiko verkocht stilletjes en zonder tam tam sinds Mei 1969 gewoon enorme aantallen 6139 horloges, maar dat terzijde. De post op WUS die dit nog het meest kernachtig verwoord staat hier:
Timeline of known facts (my comments in parenthesis):
Fall 1968 - Heuer/Breitling/Hamilton (HBH) divide 100 pre-production movements between them for casing and distribution, 40 to Heuer and Breitling, 10 to Hamilton, DD kept the remaining 10 for testing.
Jan 1969 - Zenith announce the arrival of the âEl Primeroâ chronograph, displaying less than a half dozen samples at a press conference. (total production at this point is unknown.)
Mar 1969 - HBH announce the arrival of the Caliber 11, in a drawing, several attendees are given watches from Heuer and Breitling fitted with the caliber 11.
Mar 1969 - The earliest serial numbers of complete watches with the Seiko 6139 date to this month. (Obviously, the movements would have been produced some time earlier, probably the fall of 1968)
Apr 1969 - HBH distributes the remaining watches from the original 90 pre-production lot and the few produced since thr fall of 1968, to their biggest distributors world wide.
May 1969 - Seiko records indicate the 6139 was marketed (no further information is given about whether this means retail shops have the watches and are selling them or if it was a press announcement, nor is there any indication of volume produced. It does seem to have been distributed in Japan initially.)
Oct 1969 - Zenith delivers a batch of el Primero watches to their biggest distributors, world wide (volume unknown).
You decide âwho was firstâ.
If âfirstâ means having a working movement, then weâll never know, as the date each of these companies (or groups) declared their movement working is not published.
If âfirstâ means having a watch with said movement in someone from the publicâs hand, then itâs a toss up between HBH and Seiko. HBH did give away a few watches in March 1969, and we know Seiko have some watches made and ready for sale by this time, but we are uncertain who got what first.
If you are trying to say Zenith was first because the other two arenât really chronographs, youâre being sillyâŠ
Dat alles neemt niet weg dat die El Primeroâs reteknappe horloges zijn. Sexy zelfs. En dat kan ik van de Pogue niet zeggen. Die zijn, eh, koddig.