March 19, 2024
Zenith Defy El Primero 21 calibre

Going back to the Defy Laboratory we have a motion which is not a chronograph. If you want a speedy Zenith chronograph, then allow me to recommend the also recently released Zenith Defy El Primero 21. The Defy Lab and Defy El Primero 21 share a case design and are definitely in the exact same family. The Defy Laboratory is a 15Hz time-only watch, whereas the Defy El Primero 21 is a time and chronograph Zenith Watches Los Angeles with a 5Hz oscillator for the time and a secondary 50Hz oscillator for the chronograph.For all-purpose watch nerdiness, both are compelling timepieces but obviously different. Silicon is exactly what makes moves like the ZO 342 actually possible. Replacing metal with silicon is how these pieces are able to move fast and reliably. Unlike metal, silicon isn’t influenced by temperature or magnetism, and because it’s much lower friction, so it doesn’t require lubrication. More so, the capability to cut very small, very precise parts allows for mechanisms not previously accessible when metal has been more or less the only substance option. These manufacturing choices combined with computer modeling applications have allowed for a new production of mechanical watch movements such as the ZO 342 that combine traditional concepts of how a small machine tells the time, with a lot of contemporary know-how.

Jean-Claude Biver says that Zenith will do less of the high profile sponsorship of TAG Heuer and work with fewer superstar brand ambassadors than TAG or Hublot. Its marketing budget, the LVMH head of watchmaking says, will be poured into research and development.

Zenith will be the horological leader of the LVMH group of brands; the top, the apex, the zenith. It will be the exceptional technology and design of its watches that will appeal to a new generation of enthusiasts as well as loyal collectors, the company hopes.

The Defy El Primero 21 is a case study in what Mr Biver means. It builds on the reputation of Zenith in the 1960s, when it was considered a leader in highly accurate mechanical movements, leading up to acclaim for producing what it said was the world’s most accurate series-made chronograph in 1969 – a Zenith Watch 40mm capable of measuring tenths of seconds.

In 2017, the Defy El Primero is being launched with a COSC-certified in-house movement driving a hundredth of a second display by means of a central hand that performs a full rotation of the dial marked with hundredths of a second, in just one second.

That isn’t the only trick under the dial. The watch’s double-chain structure is based on two regulators, made of carbon-matrix carbon nanotube composite, a patented new material that is resistant to magnetic fields and temperature gradients to a degree well above existing norms.

“With its powerful 44 mm titanium case, Defy El Primero 21 becomes the master of extreme precision,” Zenith says.

The 2017 model has an all-new El Primero movement equipped with new regulating organs as well as a patented chronograph control mechanism.

Chronometer-certified by the COSC, the calibre has been created with the stated aim to establish itself as the most accurate on the market.

Zenith Defy El Primero 21 calibre