Zenith

Zenith Defy Classic Lady (???) Chrono

 

Don't you love it if you manage to be at home when you expect a parcel service to bring you a new watch?
Well, I just managed to do so this afternoon ;-)
It was quite an unusual purchase, but it worked out very well.
Like many other people, I have not been a big friend of a lot of the designs Zenith used during the Nataf era, and I was very pleased with the recent direction of the brand.
Nevertheless I have not yet bought a watch from the newer model lines, although I surely will not too far in the future. So far, my only Zenith was an Elite Rainbow diver which I purchased long after it was discontinued.
The watch is great and it was an amazing bargain. But of course it is pre-Nataf.
Now I have always been intrigued by the fact that there still seems to be a huge number of Defy-style watches out there that seem to be slow sellers, which gives you the opportunity to get a high quality watch with an in-house movement at a very low price, in particular if you look at the El Primero-based chronos. But I really found the Defy chrono designs to be a bit over the top, and the size of them was also too big for me. Still I was tempted to get one just for the fun of it, given the bargain they are in my eyes.
And then by surprise I found a model that fit my bill perfectly, and I found it in a place where I would not have expected it, in the section for Lady's watches: the Defy Classic Lady Chrono.
Looking at the watch individually, I really wondered why it was considered a Lady's watch. Of course the design is not as distinctive as what you get with the Men's Defy watches, and the diameter of 38mm is also very small compared to the Men's models. But considered by itself, it works great as a sports watch for a man, and the ratio of the movement diameter to case diameter is in a much more reasonable range.

While the diameter is comparatively small for a sports watch by contemporary standards, it is on the thicker side with 16mm, at least compared to the diameter. In my opinion the proportions work out well.
The watch has a screw-down crown and screw-down chrono pushers. The only thing I might change is the strap. It is a rubber strap, and it is quite comfortable, with a nice tang buckle, but it has a glossy surface, which I find rather unusual. But we'll see, maybe I get used to it. And if not, I'm sure I'll find another strap that works well with the watch.

Some of the highlights (for me) are:
- the color of the dial
- the black date disk with white print
- the skeleton hands
- the design of the rotating bezel with the 15/30/45/60 markers and the Zenith stars

To sum it up, this cheap lady and me will get along very well ;-)

Below are a couple of quick cell phone pictures to give you an idea of the watch.

Unboxing:

First view of the watch in the nice wooden box:

Side shot:

Front shot:

Wrist shot:

Angled shot:

Size comparison with a 50 Fathoms. The rubber strap does not allow the Zenith to lie flat on the back, so it is a bit closer to the camera and the actual size difference is not as apparent in this shot as it is in real life.