Horological Meandering

They contacted Zenith if the El Primero was still available. We all know the story ... zenith was told to get rid of all that mechanical crap but fortunately Charles Vermot did not listen to the morons   that bought Zenith and hide all the tools, equipment, plans, that were needed to make the El Primero.
Anyway, Ebel contacted them in 1981 and in1982 deliveries started. between 82 and 85 they put the EP Cal 3019 PHC inside these Ebel chronographs
In 1986 the same calibre (probably with some adjustments was named the Cal 40.0 and no longer the 3019 PHC, so from 1986 you'll find the 40.0 in these Ebel watches.
Later it became Cal. 400.

Around 1986 Rolex contacted Zenith and asked something similar ' Can you deliver us your EP so we can use it for the Daytona? ' They agreed and The automatic Rolex 16520 was bird ( which they made until 2000 when Rolex replaced the movement inside the Daytoan with an infuse Rolex movement).

When Rolex started buying the EP movements Ebel knew it had to start making an own in-house movement cause they knew one day deliveries could become difficult. There was a big chance the giant Rolex would buy the entire production Zenith can offer.

A couple of years later , around 1995 I believe Ebel had their own movement and put these in the model 'Ebel- Le Modular'.

But it was definitely Ebel that saved Zenith, Rolex came 6 years later. And so did quite a few others .. Even TOP brands like Urban Jörgensen, Parmigiani and Daniel Roth

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