Zenith Defy Skyline Skeleton

Zenith, while not a household name, is certainly a known name in the world of watches - particularly in collecting circles. The primary reason?

The El Primero.

As nothing short of an icon (yeah, we said it), this caliber tends to have some side effects for its name brand, in this case, other models from the era in Zeniths line up perhaps not getting the recognition that the deserve — leaving plenty of forgotten gems in the brands past. Such is the case with the Defy line of watches, which debuted the very same year that the El Primero chronograph did in 1969!

The Zenith Defy collection spans an almost shocking array of references, including watches like the Revival darlings, right on up to crazy Defy Extremes and Defy 21s – the Defy Skyline collection connects all of these dots. At the forefront of this collection is the Defy Skyline Skeleton – a distinct openworked version combining some of the big personality found in the Extreme and 21 references, into a more approachable framework.

This particular Zenith Defy, a Skyline Skeleton, features a 41mm stainless steel octagonal case with a sapphire crystal, a 12-sided brushed bezel with a polished outer edge and a signed screw-down crown. The ‘skeleton dial’ features a four-pointed Zenith star pattern in blue with numerous cutouts, leaving a striking geometric decoration, a 1/10th sub-seconds display at 6 o’clock and is accompanied by a set of applied luinous indices and a matching handset.

The movement itself is further skeletonized, allowing one to view the El Primero technology beating away beneath. Powering this Defy Skeleton Skyline is the El Primero 3620 hi-frequency automatic movement which structurally, better displays the escapement with the subsidiary dial shifted from 9 o’clock to 6 o’clock. This Defy Skeleton Skyline is fitted with a flat steel H-link integrated bracelet equipped with a quick release button for seamless strap changes and a signed push-button deployant clasp.

From the eye-catching geometric dial and dynamic case shape, to the mechanical charm displayed through the skeletal dial and the small seconds hand zipping along, the Zenith Defy Skeleton Skyline is a very special watch indeed. 

Georges Favre-Jacot began producing pocket watches in Le Locle at the age of twenty-two. By the turn of the 20th century, Favre-Jacot was producing marine chronometers and chronometer-grade movements, one of which won a chronometry competition in Neuchâtel in 1903. Under the name Zenith, formally established in 1911, Favre-Jacot expanded his production to include wristwatches.
Zenith's chronographs in particular gained a reputation for excellence. At first Zenith used Excelsior Park and Valjoux movements, sharing them with Universal Genève and Movado (with which Zenith would merge for a time in 1969). By the 1960s Zenith acquired ébauche manufacturer Martel and began using their movements exclusively, leading to lauded calibers such as the 146HP and 146DP, which launched in 1969.
1969 was a banner year for horology, as it saw the launch of the first automatic chronograph movement. This was a race between a team consisting of Hamilton, Heuer, Buren, Dubois-Depraz, and Breitling; Seiko; and Zenith. Zenith used the Caliber 146 as a basis for the caliber which the brand would dub "El Primero" — "the first." Of the consortium’s Caliber 11, Seiko’s reference 6139, and the El Primero, only the latter feature a “high-beat” movement for increased accuracy.
Zenith ceased using manually-wound movements in their chronographs after the introduction of the El Primero — however, then the Quartz Crisis of the 1970s hit, and the company was sold. Employees were ordered to destroy or otherwise liquidate their mechanical watchmaking tooling, but incredibly, one daring engineer, Charles Vermot, decided to hide machinery behind a false wall that he built himself in the attic of the company’s manufacture in Le Locle. He told no one about what he was doing — not even his family.

Then, in the 1980s after the company had changed hands once again, he led modern Zenith management to this secret cache of horological wonders, in which the El Primero tooling was hidden. Ebel placed the first modern order for El Primero movements in 1984, but it was Rolex, who ordered thousands of calibers to power their new automatic Daytonas, that saved the firm. Today, the El Primero powers numerous vintage-inspired chronographs as well as the new Chronomaster Sport, a watch aimed as a competitor at — with much irony — the Daytona.

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