Zenith Grows Defy Skyline Family with Chronograph Skeleton Models (Hands-On Images)

You can’t keep a good chronograph down, even in a line of watches initially launched as a non-chronograph branch of the prestigious El Primero family tree. In 2022, Zenith built upon a very prolific and successful several years of new releases with the launch of the Defy Skyline. Taking its cues from both the quirky “bank vault” case design of the original Defy models from 1969 and the geometrical, urban-architectural lines of modern cities, the time-only Skyline model, with its lightning-quick 1/10th-second subdial at 9 o’clock, was (if you’ll pardon the expression) defiantly different from its chronograph-equipped siblings and also from every other watch with a small seconds subdial. The skeletonized version followed in 2023, and the inevitable Defy Skyline Chronograph debuted one year later. Now Zenith kicks off 2023 by marrying the elements of the previous two iterations — skeletonized movement and high-frequency stopwatch — in the new Defy Chronograph Skeleton, available in two steel-cased versions. 

The watch’s emblematic, octagonal case measures 42mm in diameter, just slightly larger than the three-handed version, and features an array of brushed and polished finishes on its multiple surfaces, including those on the dodecagonal (12-sided) bezel. The latter is an aesthetic element resurrected from those aforementioned early Defy models, and its corners line up with the baton hour markers suspended over the skeletonized dial.

Essentially the front-facing surface of the Zenith El Primero 3600SK movement, the dial has been painstakingly hollowed out to show off as much of its inner complexity as possible beneath the central hands (rhodium-plated, like the hour markers) and the trio of openworked, gray-azuré subdials. A close-up look reveals that the movement’s geometric cutouts echo the forms of Zenith’s ‘60s-era “double Z” logo and the brand’s modern star emblem, inspired, Zenith says, by its founder Georges Favre-Jacot’s fascination with the night sky and its astronomical mysteries.

The skeletonized dials of the two new models are rendered in either a black or blur colorway, with key elements of the movement — the mainplate, the bridges, and the star-shaped oscillating weight, the latter visible from the back side, behind a sapphire window — all meticulously finished in the same color treatment for a monochromatic appeal. Fortunately for those who appreciate the capabilities of the El Primero caliber, Zenith has not removed anything from this stripped-down version of it that affects its legendary timekeeping and chronographic performance. Its 36,000-vph frequency is intact, enabling readings of elapsed intervals to 1/10-second, and it stores a well-above-average power reserve of 60 hours. Its escape wheel and lever are made of antimagnetic silicon, making for greater reliability and accuracy. The watch comes with an integrated three-link steel bracelet and a star-patterned rubber strap, which are easily interchangeable via the push of a button courtesy of Zenith’s built-in, no-tools-required switching system. 

If you’re a fan of the original Defy Skyline, or the Skyline Chronograph that came out last year, this watch may or may not be for you: the skeletonization of the movement (and, accordingly, the dial) eliminates the “repeating star” dial pattern that distinguished the Skyline subfamily from the other Defy models, and in fact the aesthetic brings to mind the Defy Extreme series, with its larger sizes and much more in-your-face character. However, such a model is certainly on-theme for a collection that has always taken a measure of pride in its unconventional and unapologetically bold approach to watchmaking. Price is $15,500.