Zenith DEFY Skyline Black Ceramic Review

Zenith is one of those brands that have always had a special place in the hearts of my wife and myself. Through our quarter century of collecting watches we have both owned various Zenith pieces and would place the brand amongst our favorites.

The story of Zenith starts all the way back in 1865 when Georges Favre-Jacot founded the manufacture in Le Locle, Switzerland. Favre-Jacot's vision for Zenith was to be a true manufacture, meaning all the trades needed to produce a watch would be brought together under one roof. By 1890 Zenith had reached its goal of vertical manufacturing and was seen as producers of some of the most precise timepieces available.



In 1900 Zenith received their first major accolade in winning the Grand Prix at the Paris Universal Exhibition, cementing their place in watchmaking excellence. In 1911 the name Zenith was official adopted for the company which highlights their ascent to the pinnacle of horology. The guiding star logo was also started to be used showing the brand's aspiration for perfection.

Throughout the 1900s Zenith was probably best known for its development of the chronograph as well as its high beat 5Hz movements. In 1969 Zenith launched the El Primero movement which was groundbreaking for the time with a wild high frequency of 36,000 vibrations per hour. The El Primero was so far ahead of its time that it is still regarded as one of the finest chronograph movements available today.



When Zenith was acquired by the Zenith Radio Corporation in 1971 orders were made to cease production of all mechanical watches. When this happened Charles Vermot who was the head of the chronograph workshop at Zenith decided to try and save the El Primero movement. Over the next few months Vermot secretly took essential tools, presses, drawings and components for the movement and hid them in the attic of the manufacture. He even went so far as the brick up these components to keep them safe. When mechanical watches started to make a comeback in the 1980s, Vermot then revealed his secret allowing the caliber to be produced again.

The timing couldn't have been better for Zenith since in 1988 Rolex started using the El Primero caliber 400 in their chronograph, the Daytona. Daytonas from 1988 to 2000 were all powered by the El Primero movement and are a favorite amongst collectors who claim the movement to be superior to the in-house Rolex caliber now found in modern Daytonas.



In 1999 Zenith was acquired by their current owner LVMH. Being part of LVMH allows Zenith to continue to perfect their craft without budgetary restraints. Also fellow LVMH watch brands like Hublot benefit from Zenith being a sister brand by being supplied movements from Zenith's superb manufacture.

I haven't spent much time around modern Zenith pieces, with our most recent Zenith pieces being from the 2000s. Since starting Hourstriker I've been anxious to get some of their new pieces in to see how the brand has evolved in the last twenty years or so. Luckily I was able to connect with Zenith's PR Manager and their PR agency Gigantem a few weeks ago and they were more than happy to help us out and send us pieces to review.



For the first piece from Zenith to review I ended up picking the DEFY Skyline in full black ceramic. The DEFY Skyline collection is Zenith's take on the ever popular integrated sports watch design which has been a fixture in the industry since Gerald Genta first penned the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak in the early 1970s. The case of the DEFY Skyline harkens back to the vintage barrel shaped Zenith cases of the 1970s and modernizes the design with a sharp octagonal case and faceted bezel. The full ceramic case and bracelet also give the watch a stunning look while being nearly indestructible.

When the watch arrived the first thing I noticed about it was just how great the black ceramic looked on the DEFY Skyline. We personally have three black ceramic watches in our collection including two IWC Top Gun models and a Hublot Big Bang All Black. While the IWCs use a matte ceramic and the Hublot uses a polished ceramic, the Zenith is a nice mix of both. Most of the flat surfaces on the DEFY Skyline are brushed with the chamfers being polished. This look extends from the case and bezel to the bracelet as well. I'd say Zenith really struck a great balance with their use of black ceramic on the DEFY Skyline, where the IWCs look very tool like and the Hublot falls more on the dressy side.



The next thing I noticed about the DEFY Skyline was the rate the small seconds hand moves at. Zenith is well known for their 5Hz movement and incorporating it into the dial through the use of a seconds or chronograph hand. Here it is displayed in a more subtle way with the small seconds displaying this high rate of the movement. The small seconds hand completes a full rotation once every ten seconds which is six times faster than a traditional seconds hand. While I've seen videos of Zenith seconds hands running at this speed, it's something else to see it in person. It's a neat little addition to watch and shows off the legacy of the El Primero movement.

The final thing I noticed about the DEFY Skyline during my initial viewing of the watch was the beautiful El Primero 3620 movement seen through the sapphire crystal case back. The guiding star logo is once again seen here in the form of the star shaped winding rotor. Given the sporty nature of the DEFY Skyline, the movement isn't overly finished. There is nice use of vertical striping and some blued screws and the balance is nicely exposed. The movement just looks perfectly suited to the all business look of the black ceramic case and bracelet.



Now that I've gone over my initial thoughts of the Zenith DEFY Skyline let's take some time to go over the technical specifications of the watch. The watch has a case diameter of 41 mm with a lug to lug length of 46.4 mm. We measured the thickest part of the watch being 12.4 mm thick and on the rubber strap with deployant clasp the DEFY Skyline weighed in at 111 grams. On the ceramic bracelet sized for my 7.25 inch wrist, the watch weighed in at 127 grams.

The DEFY Skyline has a slightly raised flat sapphire crystal that has an anti-reflective coating applied to it. Under the crystal clear sapphire you can see the flat back dial with a repeating four pointed star motif. This pattern has been used on a lot of recent Zenith models and personally I feel it ties the watches in nicely with the brand's identity.



Zenith uses applied polished stick indices for the hour markers and 3 o'clock is skipped being replaced by a black backed date window. The hour markers along with the hour, minute and seconds hands are all coated with an ample amount of white super-luminova which glows green in low light situations.

At 9 o'clock you have the sub dial for the small seconds hand which is marked with 10 for the number of seconds it takes to complete a full revolution. Finishing off the dial is the Zenith star logo and brand text at 12 o'clock and "Swiss Made" at 6 o'clock. Finally there is a printed white minutes track around the outside of the dial.



The bezel of the Zenith DEFY Skyline is twelve sided and the black ceramic is brushed on the top and polished on the sides and facets. The design of the bezel looks amazing in person and the facets catch the light nicely. The case is octagonal and like the bezel has its flat sections done in a brushed finish while the chamfers are polished. The bezel and case design go well with each other and give the DEFY Skyline its own unique look in the crowded integrated sports watch field.

Looking at the profile of the DEFY Skyline you can see there are virtually no lugs, which explains why a watch with a 41 mm case diameter has such a short lug to lug of 46.4 mm. The bracelet and strap have hardly any outward flare meaning the watch could easily fit those with smaller wrists. Lots of times like on a Royal Oak, the integrated bracelet flares out making the watch appear and wear much larger than its case size suggests. This is not the case on the Zenith DEFY Skyline.



The right hand side of the case finds the large screw down the crown. The crown is five sided and has the star logo on top of it. The five points of the star extend out to each side of the crown. Once unscrewed, the watch allows for manual winding in its resting position. Pulling the crown out to position one allows you to set the date and pulling the crown all the way out to position two allows the time to be set. Pulling the crown out to set the time also stops the seconds hand which is rather rewarding on the DEFY Skyline. Since the small seconds hand is moving so fast it's interesting to see it stop so abruptly. I do also need to add that using the crown feels really nice, you can tell this is a very high quality timepiece. Pushing the crown back in causes no jump in the minutes hand and screwing the crown in is extremely easy and requires no additional care to get it to catch.

Flipping the watch over shows off the display case back which is connected to the case by four exposed bolts. The ceramic on the case back is brushed like you find on the sides and top of the watch. Through the flat sapphire crystal you can see the exposed El Primero 3620 movement. On top of the movement is the star shaped winding rotor with "Zenith Manufacture" engraved on the weight. The 3620 is a clean looking movement with only some vertical striping found on the satin finished movement. The balance is also nicely exposed as are some silicon pieces of the movement.



Being true to its lineage the El Primero 3620 is a high beat movement beating away at 36,000 VPH (5Hz) while still allowing for 60 hours of power reserve. The movement also allows for bi-direction automatic winding. On our timegrapher the Zenith DEFY Skyline averaged +5 seconds per day of accuracy over several positions. This result is just inside of chronometer specifications. The best part of putting the El Primero 3620 on the timegrapher was hearing its fast rate going off like a machine gun.

The DEFY Skyline has a lug width of 26 mm which tapers down to 17 mm on the ceramic bracelet and 18 mm on the rubber strap. The black ceramic bracelet has an amazing feel and finish to it, really making the DEFY Skyline feel like a luxury timepiece. The bracelet has a very nice articulation to it and forms nicely to your wrist. Also being crafted out of ceramic, the bracelet is surprisingly lightweight. One of the reasons I don't like bracelets is the added heft to the watch, this ceramic bracelet only adds 16 grams more weight than the rubber strap does. The bracelet has its flat sides done in a brushed finish, while the chamfers are polished, once again mirroring the case. The bracelet uses a double deployant clasp and requires both buttons to be pressed to release the bracelet. There are no fine micro-adjustments or divers extension to be found on the clasp either. The clasp is finished off with the Zenith star logo and branding text as well.



For the majority of the time I wore the DEFY Skyline it was on the included black rubber strap. It's no secret that I prefer straps to bracelets and the Zenith rubber strap was a treat. The strap is extremely supple and required zero break in to be very comfortable. The top of the strap is textured while the back of the strap is smooth. The rubber strap comes on a brushed double deployant clasp with the Zenith text on it. Like the clasp on the bracelet, the strap's deployant also requires two buttons to be depressed to release the strap. Both the strap and the bracelet use Zenith's quick release strap system that just requires a tab near the lugs of the watch to be pushed to release the strap or bracelet. You then just hook the tabs on the new strap or bracelet into the case and pull down to lock it into place. This quick release system is really one of the nicer and more secure systems I've used.

During my time with the Zenith DEFY Skyline I tried to wear it exclusively until we did the review. My wife also spent some time wearing the watch as well. At 111 grams on the strap and 127 grams on the bracelet, the DEFY Skyline pretty much disappears on your wrist. Even on the bracelet, I never really noticed the watch too much while wearing it. Another nice touch about having a ceramic bracelet is that you don't really have to worry about scratches at contact points like where the clasp rests on a surface when being worn. Being that I prefer straps, we spent most of the time wearing the watch on the rubber strap. The strap being fairly wide kept the watch centered on wrist and we never found the watch favoring one side of your wrist over the other.



On my 7.25 inch wrist the DEFY Skyline fit well, the 46.4 mm lug to lug is a bit smaller than the 50 mm plus lug to lug I prefer, but the watch still looked good on wrist. On the ceramic bracelet the watch wore larger in appearance because of the integrated design. The DEFY Skyline did wear smaller on the rubber strap through. On my wife's 5.2 inch wrist, the DEFY Skyline looked just fine when worn on the rubber strap. She remarked how much it reminded her of her favorite watch, a 41 mm Hublot Big Bang All Black which is also made out of ceramic and comes on a rubber strap. That both of us could pull off the DEFY Skyline on drastically different sized wrists illustrates the unisex possibilities of the watch.

While running boring errands like going to the grocery store or looking at house the DEFY Skyline was a treat on the wrist. It fit in perfectly with my normal dress of t-shirts, shorts and sneakers. When wearing the watch out to dinner and drinks the watch fit in nicely as well. The dial is highly legible so telling the time at a glance while say driving was no issue. Also with the nice amount of lume on the dial markers, even at night it was easy to tell the time.



I noticed that the watch got more attention when worn on the bracelet versus the rubber strap. I'd imagine this was due to the way the polished edges of the bracelet catch light. Like I mentioned earlier, the ceramic bracelet really makes the Zenith DEFY Skyline look like a very expensive timepiece. The strangers and friends I showed the watch to mostly commented on how much they were amazing by the speed of the small seconds hand. Also the look of the movement and in particular the star rotor was also highly commented on.

Speaking of price, the Zenith DEFY Skyline is not an in-expensive watch. The watch retails for $15,500 and comes with the ceramic bracelet along with the rubber strap. For that price you're getting a watch from one of the most respected watch manufactures in the business. You are also getting a ceramic watch along with a full ceramic bracelet. The overall package of the DEFY Skyline is just stunning as well. Now would be a great time to look at some other full ceramic sports watches and see how the DEFY Skyline lines up with similar models.



First let's take a look at the Bulgari Octo Finissimo in full black ceramic. The Octo Finissimo has a 40 mm square case and comes on a full ceramic bracelet like the DEFY Skyline. The Octo Finissimo only has 30 meters of water resistance and is powered by a manufacture BVL 138 automatic movement with 60 hours of power reserve. The Octo Finissimo is a bit more expensive than the DEFY Skyline at $18,800.

Next up we have the Hublot Big Bang Integrated Black Magic which is also crafted out of black ceramic and has a case diameter of 42 mm. Like the Zenith and Bulgari the Black Magic also comes on a full black ceramic bracelet. The Black Magic offers the same 100 meter water resistance as the DEFY Skyline and is powered by an in-house UNICO flyback chronograph automatic movement with 72 hours of power reserve. The Black Magic like the Octo Finissimo also costs a fair bit more than the DEFY Skyline at $25,200.



Moving on there is the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe which is crafted out of black ceramic and has a case diameter of 43.6 mm. The Bathyscaphe like the three above watches also comes on a full black ceramic bracelet. Being a true divers watch, the Bathyscaphe has a 300 meter water resistance rating. The Bathyscaphe is powered by an in-house Blancpain 1315 automatic movement with 120 hours of power reserve. Once again the Blancpain is more expensive than the Zenith at $21,300.

Finally we have the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Chronograph done in black ceramic with a case diameter of 41 mm. Once again like all the other watches mentioned, the Royal Oak also comes on a full black ceramic bracelet. The Royal Oak has a water resistance of 50 meters and is powered by an in-house Audemars Piguet calibre 4401 flyback chronograph automatic movement with 70 hours of power reserve. The Royal Oak is also much more expensive than the DEFY Skyline at $78,200.



As you can see, the DEFY Skyline offers an amazing value for a full ceramic sports watch being well under the price of similar watches from other top manufactures. The Octo Finissimo and Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe are probably the closest in terms of specs to the DEFY Skyline being a three hand watches, both are a good deal more expensive than the DEFY Skyline as well. The Hublot and Audemars Piguet watches offer flyback chronographs, but also move the price up substantially. The Zenith, Hublot and Audemars Piguet pieces are also the most traditional looking when talking about sports watch design, while the Blancpain is a classic diver and the Octo Finissimo is its own unique design.

So in the end, is the Zenith DEFY Skyline for me? I'd say the watch checks most of the boxes of what I look for in a watch. It's a sporty watch crafted out of high tech material which I love. While I typically don't like bracelets, the novelty of a full ceramic bracelet intrigues me. Also with the lightweight nature of ceramic, the bracelet doesn't add to much heft. The watch also comes with an excellent rubber strap on a deployant strap, which I love. The black dial with repeating star motif is just stunning in person and seeing the small seconds complete a rotation every 10 seconds is spellbinding. Being powered by such a legendary caliber as the El Primero is another huge plus for me. The only thing I'd personally ding the watch for is its 46.4 mm lug to lug. My personal watches are all 50 mm or longer in lug to lug length, so 46.4 mm is something I'd have to get used to. On the bracelet, the DEFY Skyline does wear a bit larger, which I appreciate. My preference of liking larger watches is a dated taste with current trends preferring smaller watches, so this really couldn't be considered a negative for the watch.



Would I then recommend the DEFY Skyline to somebody looking for a higher end sports watch? You can get a stainless steel or titanium integrated sports watch for a lot less than a ceramic model. If ceramic is something you're interested in, the DEFY Skyline might be the most affordable option from a top manufacture. I personally love ceramic, so the added cost would be worth it to me. The lug to lug length of 46.4 mm is in the goldilocks zone and can fit both small and large wrists. Zenith is strongly regarded as one of the finest manufactures of high end movements, so the DEFY Skyline running on an El Primero movement is a huge positive. The overall package of the watch is just stunning as well. The dial goes so well with the overall brushed and polished look of the ceramic case and bracelet. The Zenith DEFY Skyline is truly a handsome timepiece that I would whole heartedly recommend.

I'd really like to thank Zenith for sending us this DEFY Skyline to review. It has been a great re-introduction to the brand and its modern offerings. Hopefully next we can get their DEFY Extreme Diver in for review, which is a watch I'd consider as one of the best releases of the year.

For more information about the DEFY Skyline please visit : Zenith

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: 49.9300.3620/21.I001

Retail Price: $15,500

Case Size: 41 mm

Lug to Lug: 46.4 mm

Thickness: 12.4 mm

Weight: 111 Grams (Rubber Strap) / 127 Grams (Ceramic Bracelet)

Case Material: Black Ceramic

Bezel: Black Ceramic

Strap: Black Ceramic Bracelet / Black Rubber Strap with Deployant Clasp

Movement: Zenith El Primero 3620 Automatic Movement

Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds and Date

Power Reserve: 60 Hours

Water Resistance: 100 Meters