Zenith Expands the Defy Collection with the New Skyline Chronograph Skeleton

I’m long on the record as being an unabashed fan of the Zenith Defy. If you search this website or listen to old podcasts, you’ll find plenty of instances of me saying that the Defy is my all time favorite line of sports watches, period. For as long as the Defy has existed, it’s been a showcase for Zenith at their most adventurous, both technically and aesthetically, and a reflection of the larger watch landscape at the current moment, whatever that happens to be. I’ve often framed my discussions of the Defy around wishing for a resurgence of the collection, which through the years has too often been ignored in favor of other objectively more popular Zenith collections, but with the release of the new Defy Skyline Chronograph Skeleton, it occurs to me that we really do, finally, have a fully fleshed out Defy collection, and Zenith is doing anything but ignoring it.

The Defy Skyline effectively replaced the Defy Classic, a much loved (by enthusiasts) line of medium sized and quite thin sports watches that were available in both steel and ceramic cases. Running on Zenith’s Elite movements, they were design oriented pieces, and the skeletonized versions in particular really spoke to me. Zenith introduced a skeletonized version of the Skyline in 2023 (also at LVMH Watch Week), and now we have the chrono version, something that wouldn’t have been possible in the Elite-based Defy Classic. Part of the appeal of the Skyline, even in the non-chronograph variants, is the high frequency El Primero caliber running it, which makes the leap to more complicated versions of the watch easy to imagine. 

A through-line between those skeletonized Defy Classics and more recent examples the skeletonized Skylines, including this one, is a commitment on Zenith’s part to keep everything legible while still having a thoroughly contemporary aesthetic, which is core to the very idea of the Defy. The skeletonization here largely occurs in the “background” in a manner that allows the applied hour markers and subdials at 3, 6, and 9 to feel prominent. Skeleton dials often feel overly busy or complex, but Zenith has found a motif that works (the shapes making up the skeletonized portion are meant to evoke the classic Zenith “double Z” logo from the 1960s) and there’s real balance here between functional legibility and a more avant-garde approach. 

This new version of the Skyline Chronograph runs on a skeletonized version of the El Primero 3600 movement, a caliber that many will be familiar with at this point as it has found its way into previous Skyline Chronographs as well forming the basis for the Chronomaster Sport. It runs at 5 Hz and is capable of measuring and displaying elapsed time to 1/10th of a second. The central seconds hand makes a full rotation around the dial every 10 seconds rather than every 60 seconds on a typical chronograph, which allows for an intuitive way to read elapsed time to the 1/10th of a second, and also works as a fun party trick for the curious and the chronograph nerds among us (it’ll always be fun to see a chrono seconds hand speed around the dial at a faster than expected pace, even if it’s overkill for everyday timing purposes). The El Primero 3600 movement has a power reserve of 60 hours on a full wind. 

There are two versions of the Defy Skyline Chronograph Skeleton available at launch: one with a black dial, and one in blue. Both come mounted on bracelets that match the 42mm stainless steel case, and also include a rubber strap with a steel folding clasp matched to the watch’s dial color. Water resistance on these chronographs is a full 100 meters, making them more than suitable as daily drivers for anyone who can pull off the size. The retail price is $15,500. Zenith

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Zach is a native of New Hampshire, and he has been interested in watches since the age of 13, when he walked into Macy’s and bought a gaudy, quartz, two-tone Citizen chronograph with his hard earned Bar Mitzvah money. It was lost in a move years ago, but he continues to hunt for a similar piece on eBay. Zach loves a wide variety of watches, but leans toward classic designs and proportions that have stood the test of time. He is currently obsessed with Grand Seiko.
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