For the third and last installment in its sequence of limited-edition chronographs impressed by Earth’s most demanding environments, Zenith has created a brand new jungle-themed model of the Defy Excessive. Much like the earlier two fashions from the sequence, the ultimate member of the trio will probably be produced as a restricted version of fifty items, and it notably options case parts which can be carved from semi-precious stone. For the brand new 2024 mannequin, the Swiss producer has turned to the jungle for its aesthetic inspiration, and the Zenith Defy Excessive Jungle embraces a inexperienced colorway with tiger-striped chronograph registers and stone case parts which can be crafted from tiger’s eye.
The unique “Desert” model of the Defy Excessive chronograph from 2021 embraced a brown colorway with falcon’s eye stone case parts, and the follow-up Defy Excessive Glacier from 2023 was pale blue with its stone parts carved from chalcedony. Like its two siblings, the brand new Zenith Defy Excessive Jungle (ref. 95.9202.9004/26.I001) for 2024 affords the identical 45mm angular case profile with flat sapphire crystals fitted to each the bezel and caseback. Like all Defy Excessive chronographs, a screw-down crown helps assure a reasonably beneficiant 200 meters of water resistance. As you’d anticipate, the brand new “Jungle” model incorporates a inexperienced/brown colorway, and whereas the vast majority of its case is constructed from titanium (identical to its two siblings), the decrease part of its bezel and the frames for its chronograph pushers are each carved from items of tiger’s eye, which is a stone inside the quartz household that’s characterised by a striped composition comprised of gold and brown hues.
Zenith’s determination to include small accents of hotter hues into the colour profile of the Defy Excessive Jungle helps to strengthen the thematic inspiration behind its design, and the “jungle-vibes” aesthetic can also be used to tell the looks of the watch’s dial. From an general design and structure standpoint, the dial fitted to the Zenith Defy Excessive Jungle is kind of equivalent to what may be discovered on different Defy Excessive chronographs, and it incorporates a clear sapphire floor with a trio of registers in a 3-6-9 structure and an arc-shaped energy reserve indicator sitting beneath the 12 o’clock marker. With that in thoughts, the central sections of the dial that sit inside its quartet of shows are tinted a vibrant shade of inexperienced, and the utilized rings surrounding the three chronograph registers are completed with black and orange tiger stripes to enhance the pure striations of its tiger’s eye case parts.
Not like its “Desert” and “Glacier” counterparts that adhere to a extra subdued colour palette that begs for a better examination to totally respect their nuances, the Zenith Defy Excessive Jungle affords a considerably extra visually placing look. The tip end result nearly appears like one thing you’d anticipate to see from fellow LVMH model Hublot. For these of you who hearken to the aBlogtoWatch Weekly Podcast and are a part of our ongoing joke in regards to the hypothetical awards present we might host, I feel we’ve simply discovered the present frontrunner for Rick’s proposed “How Hublot Can You Go” award; nonetheless, as an ardent fan of each Zenith and Hublot, I sincerely intend this as a praise. One of many particulars I respect most about Zenith is that the corporate concurrently produces vintage-inspired heritage items alongside daring and unapologetically trendy equivalents, and flat-out wild creations such because the Defy Excessive Jungle are exactly why even essentially the most jaded fanatic can nonetheless discover enjoyment from Zenith on a model stage.
Internally, the Zenith Defy Excessive Jungle is powered by the identical El Primero Caliber 9004 automated chronograph motion as its two siblings, though its skeletonized rotor and uppermost bridge are completed khaki inexperienced to additional lean into the colorway of the watch. The El Primero 9004 is a reasonably spectacular creation that options two totally different escapements, with one devoted to the time-telling facet of the motion and the opposite to its 1/a hundredth of a second chronograph. The bottom motion affords an already excessive frequency of 36,000vph (5 Hz) with an influence reserve of fifty hours; nonetheless, the chronograph is ruled by an ultra-fast escapement that beats at 360,000vph (50 Hz), which implies that its centrally-mounted chronograph hand rotates as soon as per second. On account of its extremely quick working pace, the chronograph will solely run for about 50 minutes with out resupplying rigidity to its devoted mainspring, and to assist observe this shorter length of time, the facility reserve indicator at 12 o’clock is linked to the chronograph, reasonably than the time-telling facet of the motion.
For the reason that Defy Excessive sequence affords an built-in bracelet design, Zenith contains three totally different wrist closure choices with the Defy Excessive Jungle, and all of them are simply interchangeable because of a push-button system situated on the underside surfaces of the lugs. The usual possibility is a flat H-link bracelet produced from titanium, though the Defy Excessive Jungle additionally comes as a set with each a black Velcro strap and a inexperienced textured rubber strap that’s accomplished by a titanium folding buckle. Zenith makes it an ordinary apply to incorporate a number of strap/bracelet choices with its Defy Excessive watches, and even when the Defy Excessive chronograph initially debuted again in 2021, the unique fashions all included each rubber and velcro straps alongside their matching bracelets. Whereas the three included choices ought to fulfill most homeowners, the case format of the Defy Excessive Jungle seems to be equivalent to different chronograph fashions from the gathering, and I’d think about that the varied different Defy Excessive straps would even be appropriate with its case.
Given particulars like its high-frequency 1/a hundredth of a second chronograph motion and multi-component case constructed from each titanium and tiger’s eye, the Zenith Defy Excessive Jungle (ref. 95.9202.9004/26.I001) was destined to be one of many costlier choices inside the model’s lineup, and the 50-piece restricted version has an official retail value of $26,900 USD. Whereas this represents a good premium in comparison with the usual Defy Excessive chronographs, the “Jungle” version nonetheless feels reasonably moderately priced, because it affords quite a few particulars you merely can’t discover in different producer’s catalogs. From a sturdiness standpoint, I can’t think about that tiger’s eye (or every other kind of semi-precious stone) affords any efficiency advantages over the titanium pusher housings on the standard-production fashions, though I personally love seeing the mixing of tiger’s eye into the precise case of a watch, and the inherently daring silhouette of the Defy Excessive is the right basis for this wild and in-your-face mannequin. For extra info on the Zenith Defy Excessive Jungle, please go to the model’s web site.
