ROLEX DAYTONA MOVEMENTSLet us begin with the reliable Valjoux manual winding chronograph, which was equipped with a column wheel and an horizontal clutch (the coupling yoke): the most logical choice for a watch producer in the early ‘60s. In 1969, the Swiss watch industry launched itself into the creation of an automatic chronograph. The match was won by Zenith, which released the first integrated automatic chronograph running at a high frequency of 36.000 oscillations per hour: the El Primero timepiece.
subir imagenes gratisCalibre Valjoux 72B front picture
In 1988, (when Zenith had finally restarted at full pace the production of the calibre, which stopped for several years during the mechanical watch crisis), Rolex fitted its new Cosmograph Daytona pieces with the El Primero mechanism. However, this movement was heavily modified and renamed Caliber 4030 (initially Rolex refused even to communicate the Zenith derivation). Although the 4030 calibre was equipped with a column wheel and an horizontal clutch, the true novelty was the introduction of the automatic winding system: the Perpetual mechanism. The El Primero self-winding movement powered the Daytona models for 12 years, until the 2000 breakthrough year: the launch of the modern manufacture 4130 calibre. A new generation of chronographs was born. This mechanism, completely in-built by Rolex, featured a vertical clutch system and its design was studied to maximize the production industrialization systems and simplify the manual operations of watch assembly. Unquestionably, it marked the beginning of a new mechanical chronograph era.
