THE CALL FROM ELSEWHERE
Issued in only 50 examples, the sturdiest timepiece in the star manufacturer’s collection represents a visa to escape to arid landscapes sculpted by time.
Whether it’s the Sahara or the Mojave, all the wide-open spaces with their endless horizons share the same sunburned hues. The Defy Extreme chronograph from Zenith is geared up for all modern adventures, with, for the first time, a special series called Desert. This timepiece is the outcome of a collaboration with British artist Kourosh Keynejad, known for his work in producing graphic landscape images. The timepiece is notable for its sandy tones coated on the sub-dials, small second hand, and available energy indicator, as well as the beige Super-Luminova® SLN C1 on the hour and minute hands and indexes. The model also stands out for its use of the hawk’s eye, a stone with blue-gray shades used to make the push-buttons and the 12-sided ring placed under the bezel.
The 45mm diameter titanium case is water-resistant to 200 meters and houses the El Primero 9004 movement that offers at least 50 hours of power reserve. This very contemporary self-winding mechanism, an upgrade of the mythical 1969 caliber, has two escapements. One with a frequency of 5Hz for the time information, the other one used to measure the time to 1/100th of a second beating at 360,000 vibrations per hour.
The Defy Extreme Desert is worn on a titanium wristband. This can be replaced by a beige rubber bracelet or a black Velcro® strap provided in the box.
Price: CHF 21,600 zenith.com
By Dan Diaconu