The Zenith Defy Zero G
Watch & Bullion
22 March 2018 | 2 min read
Zenith has been pushing their Defy range for quite some while. While the brand will probably always be known mainly for having fathered the El Primero, I can appreciate that they are willing to try to push themselves not to be a one-trick pony like some other brands have done in the past. One can see why they wish to pump the Defy. It has all the ingredients of a classic luxury steel timepiece, a recipe previously perfected by the likes of the Royal Oak or the Nautilus.
What has happened here then is that Zenith decided to use their progress in their patented Gravity Control Gyroscopic module to feature the Defy, and what progress it is! The technology in the Zero G is loosely based on the Christophe Colomb, but the focus is on loosely as this new version only occupies a mind-bending 30% of its initial volume. That allows for a, while not thin, significantly more wearable 15 mm in thickness compared to the hefty 22 mm in the Colomb.
The 139 part gravity control module powers a manual-winding movement which oscillates at 5 Hz. This is way faster than most mechanical watches and helps with accuracy, however, I while go on a limb here and suggest that the increase in accuracy is equally negligible in the real world to that gained by the gravity control module itself.
From a design perspective, this will take a confident watch lover to pull off. This is not because of the Gyroscope, but rather that this is both a big watch at 44 mm diameter and a bold watch with angular design sporting many different brushed and polished elements and a skeletonized dial.
Available in titanium and rose gold with a matching metal bracelet or a blue alligator strap the colour choices here won’t be for everybody, and I predict the all titanium model to be the most popular. This definitely isn’t for everybody, but at just around the $100,000 mark it really doesn’t need to be. It is there to bring a select few watch nuts a lot of joy, and to make the Defy range as a whole more attractive. And for me, it does both of those things.