Results for Zenith Chronomaster

A Closer Look: The Only Known Rolex ‘Rainbow Zenith’ Daytona

Sincere Fine Watches’ 70th Anniversary: Zenith Presents The Defy Skyline Big Date Flyback Sincere Platinum Jubilee Edition

[Video] Review: the Zenith Defy Extreme Diver

When I write reviews, I find myself bucketing watches into two distinct categories. The first of these is home to watches that feel like they’re meant for a different version of me, if not a different collector altogether. These are the watches that, whether I love them or not, I’d be hard-pressed to really see as part of my day-to-day life - at least as my life exists now. The other bucket is where watches like the Zenith Defy Extreme Diver live. This is the bucket for the watches that seem to hit right in my wheelhouse - the watches that seem like they were purpose-built to appeal to me (and possibly to my wallet). The minute I saw the press release for the Defy Extreme Diver, I knew it sat in this second bucket, and I knew I needed to spend some time with it, if not for a review, then certainly to consider whether this watch was one I needed in my life. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait all too long, and after a couple of weeks with the Defy Extreme Diver on my wrist I can easily confirm what at first I only suspected - it is very, very good. There’s an inherent irony that comes along with the very concept of a luxury tool watch. The tension between building a rugged tool watch ready to tackle the world’s most demanding environments and building a high-end luxury product is palpable. To make a watch that straddles those two worlds without looking too much like a Submariner is even harder.  With the Defy Extreme Diver, Zenith has managed to make somethi...

The Zenith Defy Skyline White Ceramic Skeleton is Summer-Ready

Fratello Favorites: The Best Summer Watches At Three Different Price Points - Nacho’s Picks From Citizen, Zenith, and Singer Reimagined

It’s summer, and while the Swiss watch industry takes the month off, we’re picking our favorite watches once again! This time, however, we’re not sticking to a specific budget. Instead, we’re keeping the theme consistent but aiming at three different price categories - sub-€1,000, sub-€10,000, and a no-holds-barred, unrestricted category. The goal is to see […] Visit Fratello Favorites: The Best Summer Watches At Three Different Price Points - Nacho’s Picks From Citizen, Zenith, and Singer Reimagined to read the full article.

Interview: A Conversation with Benoit de Clerck, Zenith’s New CEO

A few years ago, I bought my first luxury watch on eBay, an Omega Seamaster Professional Diver 300m ref. 2220.80.00. It was a watch I had first noticed on the wrist of Daniel Craig in Casino Royale over a decade earlier, and one which I had coveted. I spent way too much money on it, and accidentally (eBay defaulted to the wrong payment method) used my parents’ credit card to buy the watch. It was a boneheaded move, compounded by eBay’s then-nascent authentication program taking over two months to actually get the watch to me. But don’t worry, I did pay my parents back in relatively short order and eventually got the watch. And I got a fun story out of it that I am unlikely to soon forget. I would posit that many of us have similar stories about how we wound up making our first big watch purchase. Benoit de Clerck, who introduced himself to me as Ben, certainly does. “My first salary was a camera, a Nikon - you know, these old cameras and all that - but my second salary was an IWC Pilot’s Watch, 3706, and the story is, I did not have enough money to pay for it.” “So I paid it part on my credit card; part on cash; borrowed money from friends, brothers, sister, and friends; and post-dated checks,” he told me, “And the guy had never seen someone who wanted to do that for a watch, and of course, I wanted that watch now, obviously.” You might be amazed to know that Ben walked out of the boutique that day with his watch. “The owner of that store took a r...

Dive Watches are Back in the Zenith Defy Collection

Here’s a thing you may or may not know about Watches & Wonders: there are very few genuine surprises once we hit the Palexpo floor. Almost every brand (Rolex, Tudor, and Patek are the big holdouts) send press releases to media weeks before the show so coverage can be prepped. By the time we walk into a meeting with virtually any brand exhibiting, we already have the key information on their new novelties and are just looking for additional context, hands-on impressions, and an opportunity to get those all important photos. But sometimes brands hold back a release or two, and this will sometimes result in the kind of extremely welcome surprise I experienced when I visited Zenith early this week. One of my favorite brands has dive watches again.  We already told you about the Defy Skyline Chronograph, but in addition to that watch Zenith had an even bigger (literally and figuratively) Defy up their sleeve. The new Defy Extreme Diver represents the brand’s long awaited return to the dive watch category, and they’ve done it where you’d expect: within the highly technical and sometimes brazen Defy range. The new Extreme Diver has an imposing 42.5mm titanium case with the characteristic 12 sided bezel common to other Defys, and outside this fixed bezel we get a ceramic dive bezel. The case is rated to an extremely unnecessary 600 meters, which is the same depth as the original Defy diver, the A3648, from 1969.  The dial utilizes the star pattern that has become standar...

Zenith at Watches & Wonders 2024: Defy Divers and Chronographs

Hands-on – The Profoundly Dazzling Zenith Defy Extreme Mirror

With some watches, you get an immediate sense of how they would look and feel on the wrist based on press images, but in some cases, getting hands-on can drastically change the perception of a watch. I’ve had it happen to me several times before, to the point I loved a specific watch and bought […]

Zenith’s First New Release of the Year is a Pair of Blue Dialed Boutique Editions from their Pilot Collection

After a period of relative quiet in the watch industry over the holidays, as we head into mid-January it’s clear that we are not being fully launched into New Release Season, with news coming across our desks about watch releases from some of our favorite brands. Some we can share now, and some will have to wait, but it’s clear whatever respite we had between Thanksgiving and New Years is, well, completely over. First out of the gate among the big Swiss luxury brands is Zenith, with news about an addition to their Pilot collection, which was their big launch in 2023.  The Pilot collection took us by surprise last year. After several years of focusing on the Defy and Chronomaster lines, it felt like a left turn of sorts. But Zenith is rightfully incredibly proud of the Pilot and the heritage it represents. Zenith trademarked “Pilot” in 1904, and is famously the only watchmaker who can use the word solo on a watch dial. The watches we saw last year represented a new twist on a format we know well. They aren’t regurgitations of a historic reference, but feel like a modern realization of an aviation themed watch with contemporary proportions and materials.  The new boutique editions seen here take the Pilot Automatic and Pilot Big Date Flyback and add blue dials, offering an alternative to the jet black seen on last year’s collection. According to Zenith, the shade of blue seen on these dials is meant to evoke the night sky as seen by a pilot, but blue is a commo...

The Watch Market 2023: 5 Big Questions regarding Tudor, Rolex, Zenith, Oris, and Pricing

There are always things that fans ask of brands across any industry, and the watch world is no different. Why not a Omega Seamaster 300M without a helium escape valve, a smaller titanium Rolex Yacht-Master, and why isn't JLC more popular? Raman Kalra has a few more questions for 2023.

Zenith Drops the Defy Extreme Collab with DJ Carl Cox

Zenith’s Pilot Watches Take Flight at Watches & Wonders

New: Zenith “Ultra Colour” Box Set Of 8 Defy 21 Models

The DEFY 21 has seen multiple colorful iterations since its inception. This latest launch is a set of 8 colors limited to 8 sets. Armed with the 1/100th chronograph movement, the DEFY 21 is a good-looking modern chronograph with an equally impressive complication. While for the more frugal, one watch with multiple straps may be more affordable, the well-heeled DEFY fans may find this box set intriguing.

The Zenith Defy Revival A3690 Gets Historic Teal Dial

There was one watch we saw at the LVMH Watch Week still under wraps, and it was also one of our favorites, even though it’s based on an existing model. The perfectly odd Defy Revival welcomes the new A3690 reference, with a brilliant teal dial with vignette effect that darkens towards the perimeter. If you’ve followed the first two releases of this Defy Revival, you won’t be surprised to hear that this is also based on a historic reference from 1969. This is a dial color that saw usage throughout the Defy collection of the era, another example of which you can see in this Affordable Vintage spotlight on the Defy from 2015. Side note, when are we getting the Revival treatment on the A781, A782, and A783? There’s not much left to say about the A3690 from a technical perspective, as it’s identical to the A3691, and A3642 we’ve seen released in recent months. The 37mm octagonal case and 14 sided bezel piece remain as funky as ever, and if you liked it on the other references, you’ll likely find a lot to love with this one. The dial is the biggest departure here and it makes just as big a statement as the case. While the teal dial thing has kind of jumped the shark at this point (hasn’t it?), Zenith gets a pass thanks to the historic reference point, and the fact that the Defy was doing integrated bracelet sport watches since the ‘60s. Plus, this is a great teal dial. It stands up to the bold design of the case and the accordion hour markers demanding equal at...

LVMH Watch Week 2023: Zenith Unveils a Quartet of Defy Sports Watches

Introducing the Zenith Defy Classic Fusalp

The Zenith Calibre 135 Observatoire Limited Edition is a surprising masterstroke

The Master of Chronographs Opens its Heart: Zenith Chronosport Open

Introducing the Zenith Airweight Cover Girl – The Heavyhitter That’s As Light As Feather

A new reissue of the popular A3818 with the El Primero movement and a new look created in collaboration with Revolution Magazine, the Airweight Cover Girl is a melding of past and present.

Quick Takes: Zenith DEFY 21 Chroma new from LVMH Watch Week

The DEFY 21 Chroma is a colourful execution of the high-frequency El Primero 21 1/100th of a second chronograph model, crafted in a 44mm matte white ceramic case with rainbow-coloured movement visible through the open dial set with markers in a gradient of tones. The white rubber strap also features rainbow stitching. Limited edition of 200 pieces.

Zenith Defy Skyline

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LVMH Watch Week: Zenith’s Kaleidoscope of Colour for 2022

LVMH Watch Week: Introducing the Zenith Defy Skyline

Quick takes: Zenith DEFY Extreme new for 2021

We like the look and feel of the watch; in particular for its larger size as compared to the DEFY 21. While it takes a larger wrist to pull off, the DEFY Extreme offers a compelling alternative in the skeleton sports watch category. As with the DEFY 21, the movement is ahead of most of its competitors, in technical feat and animation. The Extreme also offers multiple looks in one watch with a bracelet, rubber and velcro option interchangeable with a button quick release mechanism. Priced from US$18,000, the DEFY Extreme is a muscled up DEFY 21 for those who like a sporty chronograph with an extra heft.