Zenith

Zenith was one of the main exhibitors of the 2011 Salon QP. So I couldn't miss a visit at their booth during my journey in London. A very comprehensive selection of the collection was displayed so I took the decision to shoot 4 watches which represent, in my point of view, a good overview of what Zenith is currently.

Let's start with one of the key novelties of this year: the Stratos.

The Stratos is more than a watch, it is a line within the El Primero collection because it contains two types of movements: first one is the EP with flyback feature. Second is the EP Striking 10th. The line also uses different case materials: SS, Black Alchron and a mix of gold with Alchron.

With its famous name, the purpose of this watch is to give a more radical design to the EP collection with a larger case (45,5mm), a sportive design (look at the thickness of the black ceramic bezel, of the indexes, of the hands), the telemetric scale and a more resistant material (Black Alchron). Movement is the EP 405B with obviously its 5hz frequency.

The pictured watch is the Black Alchron Flyback one and I really like its black atmosphere. The Stratos looks smaller on the wrist than it is actually due to a controlled dial opening of 35mm.

















Dial finishings are excellent with nice shades of black.

El Primero finishings don't reach the same level but it is not that important here because the key point of this caliber is its features. It remains an enjoyable movement for our eyes due to its architecture. You will notice the big Zenith black star on the rotor.

We jump into another world with the Captain Winsor which is one of the keystones of the Captain collection.

We already discussed quite a lot about it.

But it really deserves our hats off! First of all, I don't know how to Zenith negotiated with Ludwig Oechslin but they managed to get his agreement to be able to gather inside the same watch the famous EP with the clever, simple and efficient Annual Calendar module.

The use of this module really redesigned the lay-out of the dial which is far to look like a similar watch (chronograph + calendar complication). Moreover, the use of the module seems to give a better balance to the dial!

We all know that current Zenith main problem is the size of its movements. They very often face the necessity to work a lot on the dial designs to hide, to reduce the perception we may have that the movement diameter is much smaller than case one. It is a bit less obvious with this one even if the minutes counter cuts the second subdial.
















Anyway, the dial is clear, neat and very legible except when the hands are passing over the two windows. Not that important...

I love this blue dial: it gives a sort of fresh air to this kind of watches. The Captain Winsor looks less complicated than it is actually.

Movement is EP4054 and features the black star rotor. This Captain Winsor was maybe my fav watch of this selection.

Back to the El Primero collection with the Striking 10th... but not the usual one.

The pictured watch is a LE edition of 69 (don't need to explain why...) pieces with a platinum case. You will notice the beautiful grey dial which allows us to recognize this watch at first glance.

Movement is the EP 4052B with the famous 1/10 of second display thanks to the 10 seconds scale around the dial.

If I'm impressed by the performance of the movement, I am still disappointed by the behaviour of the second hand. It moves quite smoothly during the first 5 seconds but starts to shake during the second half. I believe that it is due to the fact that it needs to go upward. i don't really know but this mix of two behaviours disturbs me a bit.

















Anyway, the Striking 10th is a very original watch with an unique complication in the industry and has favoured a lot thanks to its positive image, the Zenith come-back under the spot lights.

We stay within the El Primero collection but I wish to show you a more exclusive watch to finish the report. This watch is the El Primero Tourbillon whcih was introduced, if i'm not wrong in 2010. Mixing a Tourbillon with a Chronograph is not that obvious mainly when we speak about a 5hz movement.

To do so, Zenith created a very unusual dial layout with the Tourbillon cage located at 11 o'clock. It does a full rotation every minute but despite this, Zenith took the decision to put a second hand. I on't know why. it was not required and it hides the view on the Tourbillon. On the other hand, the way the date display is inserted arounf the Tourbillon is cleverly made.

Dial is very clear even if I regret that the minutes counter cut the hours one! This is sadly a quite usual story at Zenith and I really feel the urge now to create larger movement to avoid such kind of situation. The second scale is cut by the Tourbillon zone but hopefully a very small part was preserved and the measured time can be read even if the second hand stops above the Tourbillon.

Movement is the EP 4035D. Larger (37mm) than the other ones presented in the report, it is also better finished. And to enhance the exclusivity of the watch, it features a gold rotor.

















On the wrist, this El Primero Tourbillon, despite the 44mm diameter, is worn with comfort. It looks bigger than the Stratos if we can compare them,  for several reasons: the dial is bright, the bezel is much thinner and these 44mm have a stronger presence than the 45,5mm of the Stratos.

After my visit at the booth, I realized that Zenith was currently on the right path under the leadership of Jean-Frédéric Dufour: the whole collection is made of a large range of complications, the prices are, let's say, more realistic, at least, more in accordance with customers' expectation. But some challenges are still ahead of the Manufacture. First one would be, for me, to release a beautiful handwind movement. I still find strange that Zenith, the brand of one of most pretigious handwind movements, the 135, doesn't have a handwind movement in its present history (removing the automatic winding to the Elite and El Primero movements doesn't convert  them into true handwind ones).

Second challenge is to enlarge the movements. Time passes, the cases are bigger and now the unbalanced design of some dials (and more important the cut of the subdials which in some situations makes them unreadable) is becoming an issue. So I would be very happy to see a new generation of movement around this topic.

Thanks a lot to the Zenith team for the warm welcome during the Salon QP!

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More posts: DufourEl PrimeroEl Primero TourbillonElite

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