

For me personally, the ability of this watch to stay faithful to the original El Primero aesthetic, while still offering a totally unique and modern feature set, is deeply appealing and something akin to a vintage-styled Porsche 911 with a modern suspension and engine. The bracelet is comfortable and, aesthetically, much like those that came on the originals back in 1969. The generous width of the ceramic bezel keeps the dial nice and small, and the overall package feels much more like a vintage El Primero than I had expected. The case is 41mm, but it wears more like a sub-40mm watch. On the surface, everything about the new Chronomaster Sport feels sleek and comfortable, while retaining a vintage look. However, setting aside the proverbial Kool-Aid of the 1/10th OF A SECOND marketing, it becomes clear that, functionally, this watch is really is all about timing close calls. On a steel bracelet, it's a 10,000 watch, and you get something really unique. This announcement is also reinforced across all of the stopwatch functions. The new Chronomaster Sport certainly seems intended to compete with the Daytona, and with a lot of other modern automatic chronographs as well, and I think Zenith's put together a pretty compelling offering.

Another difference, though it is only a superficial element, is the entirely unique engraved bezel stating “1/10th OF A SECOND.” No other watch proclaims this overtly. The running seconds at 9-o’clock is the only familiar function.

The subdial at 3-o’clock only tallies up one minute before sending that data over to the sub-dial at 6-o’clock which tallies those minutes up to one hour. Completing its rotation in just 10 seconds, the central stopwatch hand races across the dial at quite a clip. It takes a little while to adjust to everything moving faster on the Chromomaster Sport.
