They year 1969 is remembered for a thrilling race when watch brands went head-to-head. No less than three watchmaking titans competed to be the first to create an automatic chronograph.
The competitors were Zenith, Seiko and the consortium of Heuer, Breitling and Buren. Amid some contention, Zenith came out on top with a caliber which proudly bears the name El Primero. Not only was Zenith the first to create the movement itself, the company also debuted the highly fashionable DEFY A3642 to house it. It's still instantly recognizable today thanks to its unconventional exterior.
The designers combined the octagonal case with a 14-sided bezel, a dial with a gradient effect, large hour markers featuring horizontal grooves (dubbed "Toblerone" markers at the manufacture due to their close resemblance to the ridges on the popular triangular Swiss chocolate bar), a trapezoidal date aperture between four and five o'clock and paddle-shaped seconds hand.
Zenith's own case shaped like a metal nut came out a number of years before Piguet's revolutionary Royal Oak, and it was paired with a ladder bracelet designed by the company Gay Frères, whose clients included Rolex, Patek Philippe и Vacheron Constantin.
The watch's unusual appearance was a good match for its outstanding technical specifications. The case with tempered mineral crystal was water resistant up to 300 meters thanks to its screw-down winding crown.
The DEFY A3642 was unofficially nicknamed "coffre-fort" in French, which can be translated as a bank vault or safe-deposit box as a reference to the meticulous approach taken to creating the watch and its impressive appearance. The new DEFY Revival A3642 introduced by Zenith at the beginning of 2022 is a careful historical reconstruction with an outward appearance that fully lives up to the spirit of the original.
However, the role of the engine is now played by a different movement: the Elite 670 with a 50-hour power reserve. The mineral crystal has been replaced by sapphire crystal on both sides of the case, which is another update replacing the original solid caseback. Tritium which had been used for illumination has been replaced by the safe alternative Super-LumiNova.
The DEFY A3642 is a watch which was probably ahead of its time. Similar geometrically shaped sports models began popping up on the crest of a wave in the decades that followed. The watch succeeded in shaping the collection's design codes, which Zenith uses for its most striking experiments to this day.
Skeletonized movements, the double tourbillon, and the Gravity Control mechanism — all of these capture the spirit of the DEFY series. That getting to know the revived version of the original a little closer all the more interesting — the DEFY Revival A3642. Its case measuring 37 mm in diameter has remained true to the historical proportions for the model limited to a series of 250 pieces.