I had the chance to attend the event organised by Zenith last Monday to celebrate the new watches of the Pilot line. It was one of the most beautiful events I've ever participated thanks to the great location (Musée des Arts et Métiers, Arts and Crafts Museum in Paris) and the very warm atmosphere! Clearly, Jean-Frédéric Dufour, CEO of Zenith Watches and the Zenith team were very happy to welcome the guests coming from different countries including clients, dealers, journalists.

The choice of the location was a bit obvious: after all, the story of the Zenith pilot watches started with Louis Blériot and seeing the plane above our heads made us understand the courage of the pilot which was a trong requirement to take the decision to fly across the Channel! Another logical link between the Watchmaking and the Arts and Crafts is the mechanism which is used to power the machine. Whatever is the energy, mainspring, fuel, electricity, we are always talking about gears, wheels, pinions..

Even if a lot of famous people were invited by Zenith, the true stars of the event were the watches and Felix Baumgartner who is currently preparing his jump from a capsule at an altitude of 36,5 Km. He will cross the sound barrier with his Stratos Flyback Striking 10th... which was offered by Virginie Ledoyen during the event.

From Blériot to Baumgartner, we are browsing one century of the Zenith history.

Did the context  change? Not really at the end... Zenith in both cases is accompanying pioneers and heroes in their respective fields. Jean-Frédéric Dufour said during his speech that we already know the deepest watch, the highest one... Zenith is now proposing thanks to Felix Baumgartner the fastest one!

I share with you now a selection of the pictures I took during the event.

The entrance of the Museum:





We were welcome by pilots!





The atmosphere of the event with the plane above our heads:













I couldn't resist to this nice offer...





So let's go to the clouds!









Going up...





Even higher...





Higher again:





I can confirm you that we were in Paris, not in NY:

Music and Rythm!






Jean-Paul Rouve, Virginie Ledoyen, Elie Semoun, Richard Berry, 4 French film stars:

A Flight Simulator cabin was set up:





Jean-Frédéric started his speech explaining the key role of the Pilot line in the current Zenith collection:

Felix Baumgartner on stage:

Virginie Ledoyen gave to Felix Baumgartner the Stratos Striking 10th:

Of course, we wish the best to Felix Baumgartner for his amazing free fall:

Grégory Pons seemed to be fascinated by the blond Saxophone player:

The Zenith stars were shining over the chocolate cake:

Sweet aren't they? This is what I call very ephemeral goodies!





The watches were positioned in different areas of the Museum but the Pilot watches, from the past or current collections were put right at the center thanks to a rectangular display:





The Doublematic, the watch for travellers:





And its roots:





The Stratos Striking 10th which will be worn by Felix Baumgartner:

The most special watch of the collection, the Type 20 which uses the pocket watch movement, the 5011:

To quickly remind you the 2012 Pilot collection, here are some wristshots taken at Basel:

Aeronef Type 20 (LE of 250 pieces), the superlative watch:



Big Date Special, maybe my fav of the collection:

And the Doublematic, the most complex of the collection:



To see more pics, please have a look at my Basel report:
basel.watchprosite.com

Sadly, the party is almost over...

I would like to thank a lot the Zenith team for the great event which gave the proof of the new energy of the brand under the leadership of Jean-Frédéric Dufour.

Fr.Xavier

This message has been edited by foversta on 2012-09-20 13:28:33