DEPLOYANT – Luxury watch reviews & horological lifestyles – Luxury watch reviews & horological lifestyles
The 2017 Zenith Chronomaster El Primero Grande Date Full Open follows in a grand (no pun intended) tradition of El Primero Grande Date watches but instead of a singular open heart, now features a fully skeletonised architecture. Featuring a sapphire dial which exposes both Grande Date discs, dual-disc day-night and moonphase complication, the bold design of the new El Primero Grande Date Full Open can be credited to Biver and his well-known penchant for skeleton style watches (Unico, Heuer 02 Chronograph, shall we go on?). Thus, those familiar with the classic elegance of Zenith will find this iteration a bit polarising. That said, the brand’s newfound swagger might entice those unfamiliar with the brand to take a second glance at one of history’s most beloved watchmakers.
Case, Dial, Hands of the Zenith Chronomaster El Primero Grande Date Full Open
When it comes to such a storied and legendary movement (the world’s most precise serially produced chronograph, slated for destruction but hidden and saved after a watchmaker disobeyed orders, now revived), wouldn’t you want to ensconce such a powerful legend in crystal clear sapphire for all and sundry to admire? This is the raison d’etre for the new 2017 Chronomaster El Primero Grande Date Full Open. The performance and precision of a manufacture at its Zenith (pun intended) is on full display and in this instance, rather than giving you a mere glimpse of the silicon escapement, now fully open in a sapphire dial for all to enjoy – in particular, the same plane date discs and the gear train which drives the subsidiary seconds.
Sharing the same dial layout as the previous editions, I find that the new Zenith Chronomaster El Primero Grande Date Full Open excels at taking what could be an extremely busy dial and finding some beauty in the apparent chaos. Refined gold polished applied indexes anchor the watch visually, pulling your glance inward towards the central displays of the dial. Given the backdrop of silvery-slate grey components, the most contrasting element being the 30 minute counter at 3 o’clock fringed in indigo like perimeter of the dial, which feels a little odd given the prime position of the transparent date window between 1 and 2 o’clock with a red background, playing up the contrast of the skeleton numerals.
Mirroring the 30 minute counter is the 60 second counter at 9 o’clock. Oddly, for a precision chronograph, Zenith has done away with the pretense of even reckoning precise sub seconds – there’s no longer a red tipped prong on the tri-prong spinning counter, thus you’re never really sure as to what manner of seconds you’re at. But as we have argued before, the watch is now akin to animated mechanical mastery than precision instrument, any technical excellence lies in its execution and delivery rather than in the manner with which we perceive it.
At 6 o’clock, sits the moon-phase (complete with a 59-day double-lunar cycle) which while an additional, almost iridescent (due to the mother of pearl elements) splash of colour and whimsy, is actually one of the most […]
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Article from: DEPLOYANT – Luxury watch reviews & horological lifestyles, by Jonathan Ho
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