Zenith Chronomaster Revival A384 Liberty II: El Primero 400, 1969 Case-Faithful 37 mm, Salute to America's 250th

Description

On 28 May 2026, Zenith unveiled the Chronomaster Revival A384 Liberty II Editions — two limited-edition variations of its faithful 1969 A384 case dedicated to the 250th anniversary of American Independence. Following the success of the 2024 Liberty Edition for North America, the maison is back with a steel-and-forged-carbon double act: a 250-piece stainless steel reference at USD 10,600 and a 25-piece forged carbon reference at USD 13,400. Both are sold exclusively in the United States, both run the El Primero Calibre 400, and both lean hard into the Bicentennial Plus 50 narrative on the dial.

The pieces are anchored in Zenith's own history — Georges Favre-Jacot built his Le Locle manufacture on the same industrial principles American Aaron Lufkin Dennison pioneered at Waltham in the 1850s — and in the El Primero's 1969 origin story. The A384 was one of the three references that debuted the world's first automatic high-frequency integrated chronograph on 10 January 1969, alongside the A386 and the G381. Liberty II is the rare American anniversary execution that is technically meaningful, not just decorative.

Design

The 37 × 12.6 mm angular barrel-shaped A384 case is reproduced exactly as it left the manufacture in 1969. The steel reference (03.US384.400/69.M384) is radial-brushed on the bezel with polished chamfers and pushers, paired with a steel ladder-style bracelet inspired by the original 1969 Gay Frères design and supplied with an additional Cordura-effect blue rubber strap. The forged carbon reference (10.US384.400/69.C823) reveals the material's marbled signature pattern and ships only on the Cordura-effect blue rubber strap.

Both watches share the panda-style dial: a white lacquered background with two deep blue lacquered sub-counters at 3 o'clock (30-minute counter) and 6 o'clock (12-hour counter), small running seconds at 9 o'clock, a tachymeter scale in blue with the numeral 250 highlighted in red to mark the anniversary year, and a chronograph central seconds hand carrying 13 alternating red and white stripes referencing the original colonies. A date aperture sits at 4:30, carried over from the 1969 A384 layout. The crystal is a box-domed sapphire with AR coating; the caseback is sapphire display.

Specifications

References: 03.US384.400/69.M384 (steel, LE 250) and 10.US384.400/69.C823 (forged carbon, LE 25)
Case diameter: 37 mm
Case thickness: 12.6 mm
Case material: Stainless steel (03.US384.400/69.M384) / forged carbon (10.US384.400/69.C823)
Crystal: Box-domed sapphire with anti-reflective coating
Caseback: Sapphire display
Water resistance: 50 m
Dial: White lacquered, blue sub-counters at 3 and 6, small seconds at 9, red 250-marker tachymeter, 13-stripe red/white central chronograph hand, date at 4:30
Movement: Zenith El Primero Calibre 400 — automatic high-frequency integrated chronograph, in-house
Complications: Hours, minutes, small seconds, central chronograph seconds, 30-minute counter, 12-hour counter, date, tachymeter
Frequency: 36,000 vph (5 Hz)
Winding: Automatic, central rotor
Power reserve: 50 hours
Jewels: 31
Bracelet / strap: Steel: 1969-Gay-Frères-inspired ladder bracelet + extra blue Cordura-effect rubber strap. Forged carbon: blue Cordura-effect rubber strap only.
Limited edition: 250 pieces (steel) / 25 pieces (forged carbon)
Price: USD 10,600 (steel) / USD 13,400 (forged carbon)
Availability: US exclusive, summer 2026 onward

What's Exciting

This is, by some distance, the best American 250th anniversary chronograph the industry has produced — and it is also the most technically substantial. Anniversary watches are almost always decorative; Liberty II earns its claim because the A384 is one of the three references that actually launched the El Primero on 10 January 1969. Pairing a case-faithful 37 mm reproduction with the current El Primero 400 — the same 5 Hz integrated automatic chronograph that has anchored Zenith's catalogue for fifty-seven years — is the rare anniversary execution where the historical pedigree of the celebration and the horological merit of the watch align cleanly.

Three other details elevate Liberty II above its 2024 predecessor. First, the 250 marker on the tachymeter is rendered in red — small move, big editorial payoff, because it gives the tachymeter scale a function it doesn't usually have on an anniversary piece. Second, the chronograph central seconds hand carries 13 alternating red and white stripes for the 13 original colonies — every time the chronograph runs, the dial tells the story. Third, the forged carbon variant at just 25 pieces is a meaningful collector's lift: forged carbon is a first for the Revival A384 line, and at 25 pieces this may be the rarest A384 Zenith has ever produced. Whether the Le Locle manufacture should be doing 25-piece A384s for the US market at all is a fair editorial question — but as an artefact, the carbon reference is unusually compelling.

History

Zenith was founded in Le Locle in 1865 by Georges Favre-Jacot, then a 22-year-old watchmaker convinced that the only future for Swiss horology lay in industrial production. He built the Zenith manufacture explicitly on the American mass-production principles pioneered by Aaron Lufkin Dennison at the Waltham Watch Company in the 1850s — the U.S.-Swiss industrial-watchmaking link that the Liberty II editions implicitly celebrate. The El Primero — the world's first automatic high-frequency (5 Hz) integrated chronograph — was developed between 1962 and 1969 by a team led by Charles Vermot, and was unveiled on 10 January 1969 alongside the parallel Heuer / Breitling / Hamilton-Buren Caliber 11 (Project 99) and Seiko 6139. Zenith was first to publish.

The three references that debuted the El Primero in 1969 were the A384 (37 mm steel, the "shaped" case), the A386 (38 mm round) and the G381 (38 mm gold). Zenith's Revival programme, relaunched in 2019 with the 50th-anniversary recreation of the original A386, has been producing case-faithful reissues of all three architectures since. The first Liberty Edition followed in 2024 as a North-American-market piece; Liberty II arrives two years later for the United States Semiquincentennial (250th anniversary of 4 July 1776 → 4 July 2026), making 2026 a Zenith anniversary year by way of the U.S. calendar rather than its own.