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New Zenith Defy Skyline Highlights 1/10-Second Display

Just days after revisiting its 1969 Defy by launching a limited edition revival Zenith Defy A3642, Zenith this week again references the sporty Defy collection with a new model called Defy Skyline.

The new Zenith Defy Skyline, also available in black or silver dial.

For the new Defy Skyline, Zenith starts with the original collection’s octagonal case and twelve-side faceted bezel. But then Zenith adds extra edginess with a larger case size (41mm) and a technical dial display close to Zenith’s heart: a constantly running 1/10-of-a-second indicator.   

Placed at the 9 o’clock position, the one-tenth-of-a-second hand makes steady jumps in fixed increments, rotating fully once every ten seconds. The display references Zenith’s trademark El Primero caliber, which beats at 5Hz (36,000 VpH) and directly powers the display’s seconds hand.

As the hand is connected directly to the escapement, Zenith refers to as a “natural” fraction-of-a-second indication. And to best utilize the 1/10-second display when setting the time, Zenith provides a stop-second mechanism built directly into the crown.

For the new Defy Skyline, Zenith developed the El Primero 3620, a new iteration of its El Primero 3600, which headlined the debut of the Zenith Chronomaster Sport last year. Zenith harnessed the El Primero 3600 to give that Chronomaster a rare 1/10-of-a-second timing scale linked to its central chronograph hand. For the Defy Skyline, the new caliber omits chronograph timing to simply power the unusual seconds display.

The new Zenith Defy Skyline is a fairly spare time-only watch (with date) interchangeable steel bracelet/rubber strap watch that offers contemporary styling with clear references to its Defy antecedents, especially with its embrace of that collection’s twelve-sided bezel.

Zenith is offering three debut star-patterned dials for the new collection in metallic blue, black or silver with (included) matching rubber straps. The color scheme carries into the movement itself as Zenith finishes the caliber in tones of grey and silver, with elements in blued metal.

Price $8,400

 

Specifications: Zenith Defy Skyline

Movement: El Primero 3620, automatic, silicon escape wheel and lever, frequency of 36,000 VpH (5 Hz) and power reserve of approx. 60 hours, special oscillating weight with satin finishings.

Functions : Hours and minutes in the center, 1/10th of a second counter at 9 o’clock. Date.

Case: 41mm steel, screwed-in crown, water resistance to 100 meters.

Dial: Black-toned, blue-toned or silver-toned sunburst star-pattern.

Hour markers and hands are rhodium-plated, faceted and coated with SuperLuminova.

Bracelet: Stainless steel bracelet folding clasp. Comes with a matching rubber strap with starry sky pattern and folding clasp.

Price $8,400.

 

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The Watches

Frederique Constant Expands Perpetual Calendar Options

Frederique Constant adds a new blue-grey dial to its Highlife Perpetual Calendar Manufacture collection, adding a stylish air to the Geneva manufacturer’s classical perpetual calendar dial layout.

A new blue-grey dial graces the Frederique Constant Highlife Perpetual Calendar Manufacture.

The new deep blue-grey dial almost guarantees perfect legibility to the perpetual calendar’s myriad displays. These include: days and the phases of the moon, date, month and leap year – all in addition to the time of day.

Frederique Constant has carefully considered its chromatic choices with this fourth dial option within the nicely priced Highlife Perpetual Calendar Manufacture collection.

Thus, we see an eye-pleasing contrast of white typography and mirror-polished and luminescent hour-markers and hands. At the center of the dial Frederique Constant places the Highlife collection’s signature guilloché Earth motif.

Here we have a nicely integrated three-link bracelet, alternating polished and satin-finished surfaces. If you’d prefer a strap, Frederique Constant has you covered: the entire Highlife collection offers bracelet-to-strap interchangeability.

The Frederique Constant Highlife Perpetual Calendar Manufacture comes with a navy blue textured and stitched rubber extra strap that can be changed as desired without the need for tools.

The back of the watch allows a clear view of the automatic Manufacture FC-775 caliber, which Frederique Constant has embellished with circular graining and Côtes de Genève decoration.

Price: $9,950. Available in June.

Specifications: Frederique Constant Highlife Perpetual Calendar Manufacture

(Ref. FC-775BL4NH6B)

Displays: Hours, minutes, moonphase, date, day, month, leap year.

Movement: Automatic FC-775 in-house caliber, perpetual calendar, Perlage & circular Côtes de Genève decorations, 38-hour power reserve, 28,800 vph.

Case: 41mm by 12.65mm brushed and polished stainless steel three-part, convex sapphire crystal with anti-glare coating on both sides, see-through caseback, water-resistant to 50 meters.

Dial: Blue grey, globe decoration, silver color applied indexes filled with white luminous treatment, hand-polished silver color hour and minute hands filled with white luminous treatment, date counter at 3 o’clock with silver color hand, moonphase at 6 o’clock, day counter at 9 o’clock with silver color hand,
month and (leap) year counter at 12 o’clock with silver color hands.

Bracelet: Three-link brushed and polished stainless steel bracelet, includes an additional navy blue rubber strap.

Price: $9,950.

 

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The Watches

Grand Seiko Icy Dials Celebrate Anniversaries

Grand Seiko celebrates the twentieth anniversary of its first GMT watch and the fifteenth anniversary of its premiere Spring Drive chronograph with two new watches.

Both debuts technically echo ongoing designs within Grand Seiko’s Sport collection, but present themselves with dials created to recall winter scenes in the mountains that surround the Shinshu in central Japan studio where Grand Seiko design and manufactures the watches. Similarly, both watches feature blue dial accents meant to echo the bright blue color of the winter sky in Shinshu.

The new Sport Collection Grand Seiko GMT 20th Anniversary Limited Edition (SBGE275).

One of these new watches, the Sport Collection Grand Seiko GMT 20th Anniversary Limited Edition (SBGE275), is a 44mm steel watch with a large GMT hand that allows the wearer to read a second-time zone while a third time zone can also be displayed using the 24-hour bezel.

The power reserve and date are the only other displays interrupting the dial’s wintry white and blue scene. With Grand Seiko’s generous use of Lumibrite on the bezel, indexes, hour, minute, and GMT hands, all displays remain visible in darkness.

The Sport Collection Grand Seiko Chronograph 15th Anniversary Limited Edition (SBGC247) is the busier of the two new debuts.

The new Sport Collection Grand Seiko Chronograph 15th Anniversary Limited Edition (SBGC247).

Framed by a 43.5mm titanium case, the dial’s icy white coloring serves as a backdrop to three subdials. Grand Seiko protects the much-lauded Spring Drive Chronograph GMT Caliber 9R96 inside this watch with heightened anti-magnetic casing and a fortified titanium case.

Both movements, including the Spring Drive GMT Caliber 9R16 inside the GMT-only model and the Spring Drive Caliber 9R96 inside the chronograph GMT, offer hyper-accurate timing, with accuracy to plus or minus ten seconds per month or 0.5 seconds per day. Both also feature an 18-karat gold Grand Seiko lion emblem on the oscillating weight. (See specifications below for details).

The Grand Seiko chronograph, automatic Spring Drive Caliber 9R96, showing the Grand Seiko lion emblem in 18-karat yellow gold on the oscillating weight.

Look for the Sport Collection Grand Seiko GMT 20th Anniversary Limited Edition (SBGE275, $7,300) in March when Grand Seiko will release it as a limited edition of 1,500. The Sport Collection Grand Seiko Chronograph 15th Anniversary Limited Edition (SBGC247, $11,000) is a limited edition of 700 and will be available in February.

 

(Specifications: Grand Seiko Spring Drive GMT (SBGE275, a limited edition of 1,500)

Movement: Automatic Grand Seiko Spring Drive GMT Caliber 9R16, accuracy of ±10 seconds per month (±0.5 second per day). Power reserve is 72 hours.

Case: 44mm by 14.9mm stainless steel case and bracelet, three-fold clasp with push button release, dual-curved sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating, see-through screw case back, screw-down crown, water resistance to 200 meters, magnetic resistance of 4,800 A/m.

Dial: Patterned ‘icy’ white.

Bracelet: Steel with three-fold clasp and push button release.

Price: $7,300.

 

Specifications: Grand Seiko Spring Drive Chronograph GMT  (SBGC247, a limited edition of 700)

Movement: Automatic Grand Seiko Spring Drive Chronograph GMT Caliber 9R96, accuracy to ±10 seconds per month (±0.5 second per day), power reserve of 72 hours.

Case: 43.5mm by 16.1mm high-intensity titanium. Dual-curved sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating, see-through screw case back, screw-down crown, water resistance to 100 meters, magnetic resistance to 4,800 A/m.

Dial: Patterned ‘icy’ white.

Bracelet: Titanium with three-fold clasp with push button release.
Price: $11,000.

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The Watches

Zenith Revives 1969 Defy “Bank Vault”

After releasing a series of watches during recent years that pay tribute to its historical El Primero chronograph models from the 1960s and 1970s, Zenith this week launches a revival model to celebrate its Defy collection circa 1969.

The new Zenith Defy A3642 recalls the original Zenith debut of the same name, a watch fans quickly dubbed the “bank vault” or “safe deposit box” due to its thick 37mm octagonal case and fourteen-sided bezel.

The new Zenith Defy A3642 revives a 1969 Defy nicknamed the ‘bank vault” due to its rugged construction.

The revival model retains all the details that made the original unusual at the time. These details include a grey dial with a gradient effect and applied square hour markers with horizontal grooves meant to “convey a sense of perpetual motion,” according to Zenith.

The new watch also features the same sword-shaped hour and minute hands and the same paddle-shaped seconds hand design Zenith used on many of its watches of that era. Today, SuperLuminova provides luminosity on the hands rather than Tritium, with Zenith matching the grey luminous color.

A Zenith sales brochure from 1969.

Zenith claims that use of the new luminous material, plus the use of a sapphire crystal and a clear caseback, are the only cosmetic differences between the original model and the revival edition. Even the ladder-style steel bracelet on the revival echoes the original Gay Frères ladder bracelet.

Technically however the Defy A3642 is decidedly modern. Zenith’s excellent automatic Elite 670 movement, operating at a frequency of 4 Hz (28,800 VpH) powers the new model.

Zenith currently offers a Defy collection, which is still characterized by sportiness and geometric cases. Zenith ensures a water resistance of 300 meters, echoing the original model, as ensured by a screw-down crown.

Zenith will produce the special Revival Defy A3642 in a limited edition of 250 pieces. Price: $7,000.

 

Specifications: Zenith Defy Revival A3642

(Reference: 03.A3642.670/75.M3642, a limited edition of 250 pieces.)

Case: 37mm octagonal steel case with iconic 14-sided bezel. Water resistant to 300 meters.

Movement: Zenith Elite 670, automatic, with frequency of 28,800 VpH (4 Hz) and 50-hour power reserve. New star-shaped oscillating weight with satin finishes.

Dial: Gradient brown with rhodium-plated and faceted markers and hands, filled with SuperLuminova SLN C1.

Bracelet & Buckle: Stainless steel ladder bracelet.

Price $7,000

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The Watches

TAG Heuer Celebrates Autavia Anniversary with New Flyback and GMT

TAG Heuer adds three new TAG Heuer Autavia models to the now sixty-year-old collection, including two versions of a debut flyback chronograph and the first-ever three-hand Autavia GMT.

The new black-cased and black-dialed version of the TAG Heuer Autavia 60th Anniversary Flyback.

Specifically, TAG Heuer fits a new Caliber Heuer 02 COSC Flyback movement (with an impressive eighty hours of power reserve) into two new Autavia 60th Anniversary Flyback Chronographs while the new Caliber 7 COSC GMT movement drives a new Autavia 60th  Anniversary GMT Three Hands watch.

The new TAG Heuer Autavia 60th Anniversary Flyback. Chronograph, with silver ‘panda’ dial.

One of the two new flyback chronographs features a ‘panda’ style silver dial framed by a polished stainless-steel case. The second Autavia flyback chronograph debut features an all black dial and black DLC-coated case. As a reminder, the flyback function makes it possible to reset the chronograph hand and immediately restart a new timing event.

The new TAG Heuer Autavia 60th Anniversary GMT Three Hands, a COSC-certified chronometer.

For the premiere Autavia GMT watch, powered by a new Caliber 7 COSC GMT movement, TAG Heuer places a blue sunray-brushed dial and a blue and black ceramic bezel within a 42mm polished stainless-steel case.

The Autavia COSC GMT caseback shows an engraving.

TAG Heuer will deliver the 60th Anniversary Autavia Flyback Chronograph models on a black alligator leather strap fitted with a pin buckle. The GMT arrives on a stainless-steel bracelet with a steel folding clasp and double safety push buttons.

The watch’s black alligator strap with steel pin buckle is easily changeable by pressing the quick-release button.

Prices: $6,300 (silver dial flyback chronograph), $6,950 (black dial, black case flyback chronograph) and $4,200 (GMT).

 

Specifications:

TAG Heuer Autavia 60th Anniversary Flyback Chronograph (CBE511B.FC8279, silver ‘panda’ dial)

MOVEMENT: Caliber Heuer 02 COSC Flyback with 80 hours of power reserve.

DIAL: Silver dial with ‘panda’ style subdial, indexes and hands with off-white Super-LumiNova, rhodium-plated hour and minute hands.

CASE: 42mm polished and fine-brushed stainless steel, back ceramic bidirectional rotating bezel, sapphire caseback. Water resistance to 100 meters.

BRACELET: Black alligator leather with stainless-steel pin buckle.

Price: $6,300.

TAG Heuer Autavia 60th Anniversary Flyback Chronograph (CBE511C.FC8280, black dial, black case)

MOVEMENT: Caliber Heuer 02 COSC Flyback with 80 hours power reserve. .

DIAL: Black with indexes and hands with green SuperLumiNova.

CASE: 42 mm black DLC-coated, polished and fine-brushed, black ceramic bidirectional rotating bezel, sapphire caseback, water resistance to 100 meters.

BRACELET: Black alligator leather with DLC-coated pin buckle.

Price: $6,950.

TAG Heuer Autavia 60th Anniversary GMT 3 Hands (WBE511A.BA0650)

MOVEMENT: Caliber 7 COSC-certified GMT.

DIAL: Blue sunray-brushed, numerals and hands with white SuperLumiNova.

CASE: 42mm polished and fine-brushed stainless steel, blue ceramic and black 24-hour scale bidirectional rotating bezel. Water resistance to 100 meters.

BRACELET: Stainless steel with steel folding clasp and double safety push buttons.

Price: $4,200.

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