Zenith Chronomaster Sport Review

Zenith went all out on the blue theme at this year’s Watches & Wonders in celebration of its 160th anniversary. The star of the show may have been the return of the Caliber 135 in the G.F.J. (see more on that one right here), but the supporting releases didn’t hold back either, boasting bright blue ceramic cases and bracelets. Together, this trio of watches comprise the Zenith 160th anniversary collection, touching on each of the cornerstones of the brand’s modern architecture. Among them is a Chronomaster Sport rendered nearly in its entirety in blue ceramic, showcasing a very different side of the brand’s most popular modern chronograph.

The Chronomaster collection has been around since 1994, building on the rather illustrious history of precision timing (outlined in more detail right here) that Zenith is known for. In 2021, Zenith found its modern stride with the release of the Chronomaster Sport with a black ceramic bezel. This watch packaged the iconic El Primero movement into modern trappings while still presenting some of the expected design cues that make it unique to Zenith, such as the tri-color overlapping subdials. The steel chronograph, offered with both white and black dials, was an instant sensation, filling a high-demand area of the market in a way that other brands could not. 

In the years since, we’ve seen a variety of interesting variations on the Chronomaster Sport that set the watch in different materials, from precious metals to titanium, each revealing a new side of the classic timer’s design. This year, in an effort to mark the brand’s anniversary, Zenith is using ceramic for the case and bracelet for the first time on this model, and — as with the other Anniversary models, one a Defy Skyline Chronograph, the other a Pilot Chronograph — it’s a tone-on-tone blue that carries straight through to the blue lacquered dial. 

To be clear, this is far from the first time we’ve seen Zenith use ceramic in such a way, but this is the first we’ve seen in this distinctive “Zenith blue” colorway, and it is the first time a full ceramic construction has been used within the Chronomaster Sport collection. It’s all the qualities we know and love when it comes to ceramic, e.g. silky smooth and lightweight on the wrist, but now in a rich blue colorway. The base design of the Chronomaster Sport is simple and handsome, and so it’s no surprise that it works just as well in a pure blue palette. 

Zenith lists the size of the Chronomaster Sport at 41mm in diameter, but it feels and looks closer to that 40mm mark. Since the material at work here is quite lightweight, this actually wears in similar manner to the titanium variation released in 2024. The material itself, however, is a different story. There’s a glassy, smooth texture to the hard material, and here Zenith has gone with a mix of brushed and polished surfaces to break things up a bit. The ceramic links of the bracelet have a particularly silky quality common to the material; however, like all ceramic objects, there is a fragility that comes with the feeling that keeps it somewhat precious in nature. Not exactly a great quality for a sports watch. 

The case hosts a blue lacquered dial with all the standard fixtures present, including the tri-color overlapping subdials that range from silver, to grey, to dark blue. The date remains at 4:30 (an El Primero signature quality) and the date disk has been color-matched so it doesn’t feel out of place. There is only a single deviation from the color scheme, and this is the red tip found on the timing seconds hand. The rest of the hands have a lume infill that matches the end caps of the applied hour markers. This is an instance where I feel that a full-lume application along the length of the hour marker would have worked well to provide more consistent contrast against the blue backdrop. 

The top of the dial retains the El Primero label, and proudly boasts the 36,000-vph beat rate below it. This watch is using the same El Primero 3600 caliber that you’d find in the steel variations, capable of timing down to 1/10th of a second. This specific reference is set apart by a special skeletonized oscillating weight bearing the 160th Anniversary logo. The caseback is also numbered to mark each of the 160 examples planned for production. 

On that note, Zenith is pricing this watch at $22,700. Ceramic is one of those materials that is beginning to appear quite often across a wide range of price points, making it difficult to get a sense of value that its use brings to a watch. It’s worth noting that ceramic with such a vibrant color is rarer, and generally associated more with brands such as Audemars Piguet and Zenith’s LVMH stablemate, Hublot. Getting this kind of color to work in such a small, detailed package with a high level of finish is a challenge, and there’s something to be said about the overall feel when it comes together well. I’d say Zenith has done a good job in this department, as this Chronomaster Sport doesn’t feel cheap or plastic-y, as some ceramic watches can. 

The Zenith Chronomaster Sport 160th Anniversary Edition packs a big visual punch into its frame, and as a result takes a step back from the core of its genre. Zenith is comfortable stepping outside of the watch’s purely practical comfort zone, and this example takes things a step further in that direction, without the use of rainbow-colored stones and precious metals. This is something different, and it feels vibrant and creative. Those are two adjectives that I’ve long associated with Zenith as a brand, so this watch feels like a natural evolution of those two steel chronographs we saw released in 2021.