Playing the sportiness card boldly and elegantly, the Defy collection entered the ZENITH galaxy like a shooting star. This avant-garde timepiece, all power, stands for luxury and good taste but also for strength and longevity. The Classic/Xtreme duality forms a backdrop to the thrilling lifestyle it conjures up - summer cruises on yachts in the Caribbean or outboard motorboat races, round the world trips in private jets or piloting a stealth plane, exhilarating escapades at the wheel of a sports car or careering around in racing cars … No doubt about it, the Defy collection embodies what is best about water sports, planes and cars !

With Defy, ZENITH started a veritable revolution in which creativity and performance are intimately linked. Defy Classic elevates the sports watch to the nobility. The muscular chassis, athletic build, starry bezel and the guilloche dial and bracelet links form a high-profile whole that expresses a virile refinement. Defy Xtreme conjugates the future with the present. This watch, in its reinforced power case that is ultra-shock-resistant and designed to cope with the most extreme situations, can take extravagant combinations of effect and material. Nothing is too daring! 

The principal event of 2008 is the arrival of the 8800 Tourbillon Zero-G (zero gravity) movement, a major innovation in the world of watchmaking. This revolutionary system, which includes a gyroscope cage tourbillon and constant horizontal escapement, means the mechanism avoids the effects of gravity and thus gives considerably greater accuracy. At the same time, Defy Classic and Defy Xtreme are heading for the open with the SEA ranges that have a distinctly nautical look, unveiling the first of a three-part limited edition. Finally, Defy Classic has put three new complications into all-gold cases whilst Defy Xtreme creates a surprise effect with an even more audacious version of the Stealth watch.

Incorporating a new generation of ultra-high performance calibers and made of innovative materials such as ZENITHIUM, this complete range will ensure new competitive success for the Defy collection.

Defy Classic Tourbillon

Finding the system that will do for wrist watches what the Tourbillon did for pocket watches is one of the great challenges of the 21st Century. Since the beginning, the best watchmakers have tried to defy the effects of gravity, that sworn enemy of accuracy. In a veritable technical revolution, ZENITH Manufacture has devised the Zero-G system, in other words zero gravity! The gyroscope cage Tourbillon comprises an escapement mounted on cardan joints rather like marine chronometers. The instrument, which is sensitive to changes of position, is kept in a constant horizontal position, thereby ensuring optimal amplitude for the spiral balance-wheel. Coordination is provided by an invention patented by ZENITH: a second gear train is the reference point for the swinging of the escapement axles and a differential gear with inverter compensates all the relative movements of the framework. The Zero-G Tourbillon, whose cage alone comprises 166 out of the 294 parts that make up the device, 10 conical geared wheels with spiral teeth and 6 ball-bearings, was developed from the El Primero automatic caliber that beats at the record speed of 36,000 vibrations an hour.

Defy Classic does justice to the Zero-G with a breathtakingly designed construction, reminiscent of the terrestrial globe. Symbolising infinity or a lucky number, a figure of 8 on its side is drawn around the hours and minutes display at 11 o’clock and around the opening of the phenomenal Tourbillon at 5 o’clock. The sophisticated, multi-layered dial shines beneath 4 anti-reflective sapphire glass plates. This precious creation clad in rose gold and brown alligator is available in a numbered edition with the 2008 millésime.

Defy Classic Sea

The first of the three-part edition, Defy Classic is riding the open sea and surfing the waves. The new SEA range, available in a limited edition, plunges us deep into a world that is decidedly marine. The stainless steel bezel has the shade for the occasion, a dark blue that conjures up the ocean whilst other nautical features, the buoy-shaped counters and wavy guilloche, animate the dial and the central links of the rubber strap. The luminescent numerals and hour symbols, the white Superluminova-coated hands and the magnifying glass over the date ensure perfect legibility to please divers.

The Defy Classic SEA range of watches, each with the new SC caliber, is available in 4 models: a Tourbillon with a bridge surmounted by a wave, an Open with a glimpse of the El Primero movement escapement, a Chronograph with three counters and an Hours Minutes Seconds with Date and Power Reserve Elite.

Defy Classic Gold

This year, Defy Classic has set itself to attract the most stylish of sports enthusiasts. In the GOLD version of this watch, the virility of the design is contained, softened, refined… but never disavowed. The colour of the rose gold, the production of which is a secret known only to ZENITH, gives it a subtle elegance, the flair of a sports watch overlaid with luxury.

The new range comprises 3 powerful shock-resistant chronograph calibers, the “Rattrapante Grande Date”, the “Open Grande Date Multicity” and the “Open Grande Date”, in new brushed rose gold cases and with a silver guilloche dial. The Grande Date Rattrapante version houses an exceptional movement, the El Primero 4026 SC, a double chronograph composed of 346 parts. The single push-button allows two column wheels to be engaged to measure two time zones simultaneously. The two hands of the chronograph reproduce the ZENITH star, in a nod of recognition to the symbol of the Manufacture. With an instantaneous jump Grande Date mechanism as well, this is undoubtedly a unique complication.

As for the Open, it is associated with the patented three disk Grande Date which in the Multicity version is accompanied by a complication that can show the time simultaneously in 24 world cities thanks to a rotating disk indexed to the hour hand.

A perfect harmony of colour, these models are available with a brown strap, in beaten alligator for a chic sporty look, with a brown integral strap made of natural rubber for a more relaxed style or with a solid gold, centre guilloche strap for the ultimate in luxury.

Defy Classic Lady

This resolutely masculine collection is at last becoming one for women with a new line: Defy Lady. These watches, smaller and more feminine, still have all the features that made them so successful - unique design combined with avant-garde technology. This year, women will have the choice between an El Primero Chronograph and an Elite Power Reserve, both of which are offered in a 38mm case for a perfect fit on the slimmest of wrists.

With or without diamonds, clad in rose gold with a brown or stainless steel strap for the black or white versions, available with an alligator or rubber strap, this watch has whatever takes your fancy.

Press release