Zenith’s Defy Revival Shadow is a New Look for a Classic

One of the things we love about Zenith is the way they walk the line between unapologetically contemporary (think: the Defy Extreme range) and watches that pay sincere tribute to their past. The latter would encompass much of the Chronomaster collection, for example, which is rife with watches that amount to tasteful updates of much loved vintage pieces. There are times, though, when tributes to heritage and a modern aesthetic collide, and that’s what we have with the new Defy Revival Shadow, a watch that combines the iconic profile of the very first Defy with a blasted titanium treatment that gives it a completely new and modern appearance. 

If you’ve been keeping up with Zenith, you’re certainly aware that the Defy Revival has played a major role in their release strategy over the past year, starting with a faithful reissue of the original version last year and then moving on to red and teal. No matter the dial color, though, the dominant design trait of these watches is always the unusual case. There’s really nothing else quite like it. It’s completely compact at just 37mm and has an elaborate 14 sided bezel and 8 sided case that gives the entire package a complex geometry that must have felt quite avant garde when the design was introduced in the 1970s.

For this release, Zenith has stripped the case of its signature finishing and given it the same bead blasted titanium treatment as the Chronomaster Revival Shadow. As a sibling to the earlier shadow, this watch makes a lot of sense. While the Chronomaster Revival Shadow was based on a specific watch from the Zenith archives, the Defy Shadow is more or less a flight of fancy. As we know from the Chronomaster, Zenith experimented with coatings to darken cases during the prototyping stage, but unlike that earlier watch, the Defy Shadow doesn’t have a historical precedent. Honestly, though, that’s part of the fun. It’s not a stretch of the imagination to believe that this could have been the product of some off-the-books, Zenith skunk-works operation at a time when the brand was at the peak of their creativity. 

This release marks the first time Zenith’s ladder bracelet has been crafted in titanium and given the same dark matte finish as the case. The ladder bracelet is an indispensable part of the Defy’s appeal. A watch like this that’s so playful with its form wouldn’t look right on a traditional bracelet – it really needs to be mounted to something that matches its weirdness. The ladder bracelet does that, and in steel it has always been a solid ergonomic match for the medium sized case. We’ll go hands-on with this one soon, but we imagine it will be in a truly “I forgot I was wearing that” territory of lightness. 

The Zenith Defy Revival Shadow has a retail price of $7,400. Check back here soon for hands-on impressions of this and other Zenith watches soon. Zenith