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Congratulations on your Zenith Defy. Superb engineering. Enjoy!
Martyn.
My first new watch in a few years. I do apologise it’s not a Rolex!!
I have always liked open (skeleton) watches, going back 10 years when I started to like watches a Raymond Weil freelancer open caught my eye, then I got a Hamilton open heart which I had for a few years. I had always admired the zenith chronomaster grande date open. Then Martyn posted his review about the zenith defy 21 and I was hooked. Jump forward to today I finally have one!! Will I lose money, very likely! Do I care, nope, watches are more than investment pieces and I plan to keep this awhile.
The watch is a Zenith Defy El Primero 21 skeleton (blue) on a bracelet. It’s 44mm diameter and 14.5mm thick. It wears very small for a large watch and is titanium so very light. The bracelet is very nice, well made and comfortable, it does not have any micro adjustment which is the one down side. I have worn it today and so far so good. I have fairly small wrists but feel the watch wears fine.
The box it came in is impressive, triple boxed, the internal box is nice, it opens up to show the watch which is housed in a travel case. Also has a zenith cloth and below the main box are the documents. The documents contain the usual instruction booklet, time lab COSC, warranty card and a nice leather pouch to keep it all in. The box is very nice and gives a nice feeling when opening the watch up.
The watch has the new 9004 movement inside which is 2 movements in 1 watch. The standard el Primero 36,000 movement that powers the watch, and then a 360,000 movement that powers the chronograph that can time to 1/100th of a second. Both movements can be wound via the crown, clockwise for the chronograph and anti-clockwise for the main watch which also gets charged like a normal automatic watch and has a 50 hour power reserve. It is the first el Primero that can be hacked, which is nice but slightly redundant as you don’t have a second hand to reference. Part of the appeal was not just the appearance but the fantastic new movement. Zenith are pushing new ideas in watches which I like.
The watch has a continuous second counter at 9, Chrono seconds at 6, 30 min counter at 3. The chronograph has a power reserve at 12, I let it run down today and it lasted for 55 mins, you can wind the chronograph whilst it’s running to extend the power. The chronograph is spectacular when running, just flies around the dial. It makes an audible hum when engaged, and has a fly back reset for the timers. The watch is 100m rates so I could take it swimming, which I have done with watches in the past but maybe not this one.
The case is well finished with brushed and polished aspects. The dial is skeletonised and has wonderful depth of it. Especially the two escapements on the left both set at different levels within the movement. The back is also open showing the rotor and movement. I just love how it looks! I could watch the beating heart all day. It is very easy to tell the time at a glance, the blue dial does help I felt the standard grey may be harder to read. One criticism of the dial is the markers on the left side they are made smaller then the right to show the movement, which is nice but personally would rather they were the same size. The lume is nice, not overly bright but good enough.
Is it a watch for everyone? I would say no, I imagine it divides opinion.
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Congratulations on your Zenith Defy. Superb engineering. Enjoy!
Martyn.
Good to see such enthusiasm for 'something else', congratulations on being different 👍
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Congrats! It is fantastic piece, especially from a technical perspective. Looks very cool too!
I have the same but on strap. I found the bracelet makes the watch wear larger for me, with what is already a fairly substantial piece. But the bracelet looks great on you!
BW,
Chi Kai
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That certainly is a beautiful looking watch and a marvel of watch making. I have never seen a Zenith in person but are very drawn to them.
The one in sales corner keeps calling!
Enjoy your new watch/work of art.
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That's a lot of watch, in all senses. Lovely piece. I like the bracelet too.
Enjoy it!
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Very interesting watch and I'm a growing admirer of Zenith. They are doing innovative things, but also have a great history. I recently traded a Rolex Datejust for a Zenith El Primero Chronometre Moonphase and the timekeeping and quality are right up there.
Good to have another El Primero 21 added to this forum.
No apology required!
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Stunning!
Nice watch. Skeletonised dials are not my thing but still a lovely looking, very well made watch. It doesn't have to be a Rolex:-)
Congrats and enjoy it.
Thanks for the comments, looking at the watch helped me ignore the Arsenal performance which is a added bonus.
To add to the mini review, the bracelet is excellent but the clasp is average, total lack of minor adjustments could make this watch troublesome to fit everyone, at this price point seems a huge mistake, also the watch has no half links. I removed another link last night, (which in itself is a little challenging using 2 screwdrivers at the same time and trying not to scratch anything) as I found the watch was a little loose, it feels better now but will see if it is too tight over the next few days.
Beautiful watch! I like how they removed the date function and added a power reserve at the top. A very refreshing style of the El Primero.
I agree with you. The clasp is very nice looking but rather bulky and cumbersome. I switched to a Hirsch Sports Deployant and the watch fits much better now.Originally Posted by NikGixer750
Don’t think that would be an option with the bracelet ....
BW,
Chi Kai
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Uuhhh looks like tons of lume!
...
BUBI 0_0
Nice objective review Nick, lovely looking watch with lots of horological tech. Enjoy.
Steve
Congrats. Great watch with excellent movement and heritage.
Zenith are my favourite brand, unfortunate timing otherwise I would have bought Martyn’s from SC, congratulations.
Very nice
I was going to get his but my bonus came in a week later, do prefer the blue dial version so it has worked out well even costing me a lot more
Very nice indeed. I have been eyeing up a Defy skeleton but the Range Rover limited edition.
I think if the example on SC was on a bracelet, it would have sold immediately. I would have definitely been interested. This particular model has been in my sights for a while but I’ve never seen one in the flesh yet. Did you manage to get any wiggle room on the sales price? If so, which AD did you use? PM me if you like.
Cheers,
Steve.
Another fan of zenith here
I have the 1969 el primero with the bracelet
Seems like the two bracelets are very similar. Mine offers zero micro adjustment and I just wear it 'baggy'. That said, it completes the look of the watch and I much prefer mine on a bracelet
Love the skeleton dial on yours and the innovative addition of the 1/100, great choice
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If anyone has a titanium bracelet version of this watch can you please pm me. Just got a question
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I have the bracelet version. What do you need to know?
That really is a stunning watch
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A little update.
The watch developed a fault where the minute counter would not progress unless nudged which was frustrating and also hard to ever notice. I ran the Chrono often and never noticed the issue until one day I had the watch on my desk at work and started the Chrono and without the any movement it just did not move the minute counter. When wearing the watch just moving a little would progress the counter. Anyone else with this watch I would check for a similar issue.
Ended up sending the watch back to Zenith, luckily this also confirmed that warranty is valid (purchased from a grey, I had emailed them before and confirmed the warranty was valid but good to know 100%) they had the watch around 6 weeks and Stuart Lord at Zenith replied to emails promptly with updates. The watch came back just before I went on holiday and it received a full service from Zenith and is now running correctly.
My main concern on the original review was the bracelet but after wearing for a little while the watch is very comfortable, the bracelet is very well made and does look stunning. The large size is offset with the lightness and shade of the watch.
I still love the look of the watch and still plan to keep this for the next 4-5 years before moving on to something else. Legibility is very good and the time is easily read with just a glance, helped by the blue accents in the dial and the shiny hands. Legibility was always a slight concern on mine as is always a potential issues on a skeleton watch. Sold my Omega so back to just having this as my nice watch. Still find myself timing the most pointless events just so I can then look at the chrono flying around the dial and enjoy having to manually wind the chrono.
Thanks for the update.....that is a beautiful looking piece and no mistake..
Good to hear this. One reason I prefer Zenith to say JLC/Richemont is that Zenith (and in particular Stuart Lord in the UK) have a good reputation for aftercare. One can accept things going wrong with mechanical watches, it's how effectively they are put right again.
Great Zenith and another good example of their excellent customer service, looking forward to trying one of those sometime.
Stuart is really good to deal with.
That watch is a beast, a real technical tour de force they make now and again like the doublematic.
Glad all is well, it's stressful.
It was frustrating that the watch had a fault but better now than when out of warranty. Stuart is very helpful and kept me up to date and got the watch back to me the day I flew out which was nice. The process was very smooth, they never questioned anything with the watch they just fixed it which was good. 6 weeks was a little longer than I would have liked but it did have to go back to Switzerland and have a full service on a complicated movement.
Very happy with Zenith overall.
That is a real eye catcher and no doubt a proper conversation piece
That is a beauty, congrats on the new accusation.
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