Zenith

iadxb
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Defy El Primero 21 - first impressions

Friends, I was very excited about this watch when it was announced at Baselworld last year, and finally got the chance to bring it home



A lot has been written about the watch and it's movement already, so I will share with you some observations I found interesting and discovered only after handling it myself: - Zenith has added hacking second functionality, which is a welcome development. However, due to the lack of a subdial around the small seconds hand, it doesn't really help in measuring the accuracy of the watch - Unlike the the regular El Primero, which has bi-directional winding, the automatic winding here is unidirectional (clockwise). - The hairspring of the El Primero escapement is metallic, not made of carbon nanotubes as originally announced. I noticed that Zenith has removed any claims to magnetic resistance the carbon nanotubes were supposed to provide, so I guess this part is still under development. I couldn't properly see the hairspring of the chronograph escapement, not sure if it is metallic as well or not. - Zenith has been using silicon pallet fork and escape wheel in the El Primero caliber for several years already, as is the case here. However, traditional metal-jewel combo was used to make the pallet fork and escape wheel in the chronograph escapement beating at 360,000 vph. Very curious to know if this is a normal variation or a deliberate choice made by Zenith. Looking forward to hear your comments or insider knowledge as to why Zenith chose to make these changes to the original caliber and deviations from the prototype announced last year... Cheers, Ibrahim