The Chronomaster is Zenith's flagship, and for as long as the name has existed it has meant one thing: an El Primero chronograph, the high-frequency automatic the brand introduced in 1969. For 2026 Zenith has made a Chronomaster without one. The new Chronomaster Solo Sport keeps the El Primero and drops the chronograph, leaving a three-hand watch with a date that runs on the same high-frequency movement family. It is the first time the modern Chronomaster has been sold as a time-only watch, and it was shown at Geneva Watch Days.
A cleaner case
At 40mm the steel case is close in size to the Chronomaster Sport, but it reads differently with no chronograph pushers flanking the crown. What is left is still built like a tool watch: pronounced crown guards, a screw-down crown and a unidirectional rotating bezel with a ceramic insert, black or brown depending on the model. Water resistance is 200m, more than the Chronomaster Sport carries and enough for the daily use the watch is aimed at. Sapphire covers both sides.
A new dial
The dial is where Zenith has spent its effort. Every version uses a ceramic dial, sunray-finished in white or polished in black or brown, carrying a pattern made for this watch: a 45-degree Z, repeated across the surface and once more as the counterweight of the central seconds hand. Zenith says it stands for the rhythm of the 5Hz movement; Monochrome's reviewer thought it looked like an electrocardiogram. Around the edge runs a sharply toothed minute track, drawn from older Zenith references and divided finely enough to read to a tenth of a second. The applied markers and hands are faceted and filled with Super-LumiNova, and on the brown model they turn gold-coloured. The date versions carry an aperture at 3 o'clock; the black no-date is the plainest of the set.
The El Primero 3620
The movement is the El Primero Calibre 3620, new to the Chronomaster but not to Zenith. It is derived from the 3600 chronograph found in the Chronomaster Sport and Original, and versions of it already run in the Defy Skyline, the Defy Extreme Diver and the Pilot. It keeps the high-frequency balance beating at 36,000 vibrations an hour, or 5Hz, which is the whole point of the exercise. The El Primero name is tied to chronographs, but its defining trait has always been that frequency, and taking the chronograph away puts it back on show. The automatic movement has a silicon escapement, a stop-seconds for setting, a bi-directional winding system and a new openworked rotor engraved Manufacture Zenith, with about 60 hours of reserve.
Bracelet, range and price
The watch comes on a three-link steel bracelet closed by the Zenclasp, the folding clasp Zenith introduced earlier this year. It carries an integrated micro-adjustment that resizes the bracelet on the wrist without tools, in 2.5mm steps across a 10mm range, and Zenith counts 41 components and a set of ceramic balls inside it. Four references launch together, all permanent-collection: a white ceramic dial with a black bezel (03.5000.3620/69.M5000), a black dial and bezel (03.5000.3620/22.M5000), a brown dial and bezel (03.5001.3620/72.M5000), and a black no-date (03.5000.3620/21.M5000). The three date models are CHF 9,900 and the no-date is CHF 8,900, which puts the price of the date at CHF 1,000, a gap more than one reader has already questioned. Monochrome's first look has the full details, and the range is on zenith-watches.com.
