REFLECTION OF TIME
The new work by the watchmaker from Le Locle is undeniably shimmering! These light-reflecting effects are complemented by the hypnotic power of the second hand, which is set in a frantic race by a vigorous caliber.
“Shooting star: a piece of rock from space that produces a bright light as it travels through the earth’s atmosphere“. If the Cambridge Dictionnary’s definition focuses on astronomy, it also applies to the Defy Extreme Mirror watch. Indeed, this new Zenith creation has the same brilliance as a star awake in the dead of night, with a case that reflects the day with the same fidelity as a mirror. This retranscription of reality, of the person who wears it on his or her wrist as he or she enquires about the passage of time, and of the immediate environment, makes it a unique object of its kind.
Although its appearance is somewhat reminiscent of the Defy Extreme Glacier model presented earlier this year, the designers at the Le Locle manufacture have taken the art of taming clarity one step further. With its famous round bezel supported by a dodecagonal ring, the 45mm-diameter case, to which the matching link bracelet is perfectly attached for enhanced ergonomics, is clothed in mirror-polished steel. It houses the El Primero 9004 caliber, part of whose gear train is visible from the front, while its sapphire-glassed back offers a full view of the silvered star-shaped oscillating weight. This self-winding movement has two independent escapements (5hz for the running time and 50hz for the 1/100th of a second chronograph function) powering two different power reserves (50 hours and 50 minutes).
Made of mirror-tinted synthetic glass, the dial features a graduated flange and luminescent hour-markers, with hours and minutes in the center and seconds in a counter at 9 o’clock. Chronograph totalizers, also encircled by azure rings, appear at 3 and 6 o’clock, while the large second hand with its star-shaped counterweight makes one revolution per second. At 12 o’clock, a pointer indicator measures the amount of energy remaining. Two additional black straps are supplied with this Zenith, one in rubber with a folding clasp, the other in Velcro®, which can be attached to the case in a jiffy thanks to the quick-change system, radically transforming the style of the whole.
