LVMH Watch Week 2023: Zenith Unveils The Most Elaborate Skeleton Watch To Date

At this year's annual LVMH Watch Week, which is being held in Singapore for the first time, ZENITH unveiled its most elaborate skeleton watch to date and the only one in the world to feature a 1/10th of a second indicator. This comes one year after the launch of the critically acclaimed DEFY Skyline collection.

A whole new skeleton line, going much beyond openworked, is being introduced by ZENITH as part of the DEFY Skyline collection expansion. The DEFY Skyline collection, introduced last year as the latest in the long line of reliable and uniquely futuristic timepieces made by DEFY, was designed for a future in which every millisecond counts.

The DEFY Skyline Skeleton pushes the boundaries of what a skeleton watch may be by taking design cues from contemporary cityscapes, where buildings and light are intertwined in a dynamic interaction.

Quickly becoming one of ZENITH's most sought-after inventions, the original DEFY Skeleton stood out with its star-shaped open dial and amazing symmetry.

The DEFY Skyline Skeleton, which features an open dial and an openworked version of the El Primero automatic movement, pushes the firmly contemporary openworked design to new heights within a new, more angular case. In a homage to the ZENITH "double Z" emblem from the 1960s, the open dial adopts the shape of a symmetrical four-pointed star.

While legibility is typically sacrificed in skeleton watches, both the central hour and minute hands and the attached baton hour markers around the chapter ring are filled with Super- LumiNova to ensure they can be read easily. The new iteration of the El Primero automatic high-frequency calibre is distinguished by a 1/10th-of-a-second counter located at 6 o'clock that runs perpetually and leaps at regular intervals, making a full revolution every 10 seconds. For a unified and architectural appearance, the skeleton mechanism is completed in the same colour as the open dial (either black or blue).

DEFY SKYLINE SKELETON

With its angular steel case, the DEFY Skyline Skeleton takes cues from the distinctive octagonal shape of the brand's earliest models from the 1960s, maintaining the same DNA of toughness and durability as its forebears while adding a number of useful new features to the city-ready companion.

The faceted bezel is an homage to the original DEFY watches and sits atop the 41mm stainless steel case with chamfered edges; it has twelve facets that serve as extensions of the hour markers. With a water resistance of 10 ATM and a screw-down crown bearing the star logo, this watch is designed to operate well in a wide variety of environments and conditions (100 metres).

The high-frequency automatic El Primero calibre 3620 SK is openworked and can be viewed from both the front and the back thanks to a sapphire display. A "natural" fraction-of-a-second indication is provided by the escapement, which beats at 5Hz (36'000 VpH) in this automatic manufacturing movement, which shares a design DNA with the El Primero 3600 1/10th of a second chronograph. It has a stop-second mechanism for fixing the time to the second. Power reserve is roughly 60 hours thanks to the efficient automatic winding mechanism with bidirectional rotor in the shape of a star.

The DEFY Skyline Skeleton's satin-brushed steel band, whose edges are chamfered and polished to complement the case's sharp bevelled corners, adds to the watch's adaptability. In addition to the dial, both the blue and black versions of this watch come with a rubber strap and steel folding buckle that feature a starry sky pattern that matches the face. The DEFY case's quick-strap-change system, comprised of secure buttons on the back, allows the wearer to quickly and easily swap between the steel bracelet and rubber strap without the need for tools.

The DEFY Skyline Skeleton, a new addition to the DEFY collection that reinterprets the aesthetic and technical potential of skeleton watches, is now on available at ZENITH stores and authorised retailers worldwide.