I don't think the year zero as presented by Mike Kavanagh was a positive thing the way the horological events you suggest were. For motor racing, the year zero represented gotterdammerung -- the corporatization of a sport. For watches in general, you could make the argument that the quartz crisis was the year zero, precipitating the disappearance of smaller firms and the eventual corporatization of watch making. The advent of the automatic chrono movement was a last hurrah of an industry on the brink. I'm drawing with very broad strokes, and romanticizing too, for watch making was never not a business, but that's how I'd draw the analogy.