![]() “The founder of Zenith created the company in 1865, and he had the vision to gather all the different crafts under the same roof. When asked to share a few “secrets” about the Maison, Tornare paused briefly, chuckled, before proceeding with a bit of the brand’s history. The Zenith CEO is undoubtedly both a connoisseur in horology and a huge fan of the brand. I love traveling and meeting people from different cultures.” He adds that the new Pilot is the perfect example to reflect the wanderlust and adventurous spirit that Zenith has always had. Those who know me will know that I travel a lot. The newly relaunched chronograph not only looks great in real life but also resonates with Tornare on a personal level, “It’s all about emotions and travel. ![]() ![]() “It’s such a cool watch,” Tornare tells Hypebeast with confidence. Referring back to the brand-new Pilot collection, Tornare points out that their idea was to uphold almost all of the Pilot model’s iconic characteristics, “from the case, dial, functions, size of numerals, pushers, everything,” but presenting it in a way that’s still modern and contemporary.Īt this point during our conversation, we averted our attention to Tornare’s wrist, which was sporting the new Pilot Big Date Flyback in black ceramic. So those ones will have a second life at some point within the Revival concept,” says Tornare. Expanding from that, “the former Pilot model was aged steel, bronze, very big, and very vintage-style looking. This includes the four main product lines: Defy, Chronomaster, Pilot, and Elite, alongside Revival, which is a horizontal concept to re-introduce and revamp vintage Zenith models to appeal to a younger and more modern audience. Tornare explains that ever since joining the Maison, he and his team have been unanimous in wanting to create an organized and well-structured “library” of watch series and collections for Zenith. In fact, the brand has been busy revamping the collection, which finally saw its debut at the Geneva Watches & Wonders earlier this year. “Our Pilot Collection, alongside the Chronomaster and Defy series, have always centered around vintage influences that nod to Zenith’s past works,” said Tornare. At a point, fans and watch enthusiasts probably pondered whether this could be a sign for the Maison to gradually phase out the model – Zenith would never. Certainly, from an engineering standpoint, the two watches use significantly different movements, although what they do have in common is that both the Zenith 3600 and the Rolex 4130 are very much pieces of contemporary, high-tech mechanical horology.It’s been a good few years since Zenith has presented a new iteration of its iconic Pilot time-tellers. Whether or not the resemblance bugs you is a matter of taste – I suspect some folks will be put off by it, although considering a modified El Primero movement was used by Rolex for the first self-winding Daytonas, I'd propose that Zenith is, to some extent, entitled by history if nothing else to connect the dots a little. The color and the way the ceramic reflects the light on the Chronomaster Sport is insistently reminiscent of the Daytona bezel, but the typeface and function are quite different – the Daytona has a tachymetric scale and the Chronomaster Sport, graduations for reading off tenths and hundredths of a second. Zenith has used ceramic bezels before in the Chronomaster line, but as far as I have been able to determine, just on the two 50th Anniversary limited edition models (which were also launch platforms for the caliber 3600). ![]() I think what makes the resemblance seem so strong at first glance is the ceramic bezel. Zenith has gotten around this problem partly by using low-inertia silicon for the escape wheel, but a lot of the mitigation comes from customization of the driving and coupling wheels, each of which has a unique profile for the gear teeth. The amount of energy available is even less than at the fourth wheel, and adding the load of driving the chronograph is potentially even more problematic. The problem is even worse if you try to drive the chronograph off the escape wheel. Balance amplitude can drop significantly when a chronograph is switched on, and if the watch isn't in optimum condition, accuracy can suffer if you leave the chronograph on for long enough. Driving a chronograph from the fourth wheel is already kind of pushing it it's the last conventional wheel in the going train, and stealing energy from the gears at that point means less energy is available to reach the balance. The reason you don't usually see chronographs driven by the escape wheel is that, generally, it's a terrible idea to try.
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