Hands-On Review of the Zenith Defy Extreme Forged Carbon

Zenith has always been one of the more under the radar brands under the LVMH corporate umbrella. When one thinks of LVMH, they probably think of Hublot (for good or bad) or Tag Heuer. But Zenith actually has a pretty storied history within the watch industry. Founded in 1865 by Georges Favre-Jacot in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, Zenith is one of the oldest continuously operating watch brands. Indeed, during the Quartz Crisis of the late 1970s and 1980s, Zenith continued to produce automatic watches. Rolex even came to Zenith to use the El Primero movement to run the Daytona (The Rolex Daytona had a Zenith movement in it from 1988 until 2000). So Zenith has a very interesting history. You must be wondering about their current collection.

I was luckily able to get my hands on one of Zenith’s more interesting offerings for a couple of weeks: the Zenith Defy Extreme Forged Carbon. Though it runs on Zenith’s workhorse El Primero automatic chronograph movement, the watch bears little resemblance to the El Primero collection. But that’s not a bad thing. With the Defy Extreme Forged Carbon, Zenith took chances, offering something a little more avant-garde or “out there”. And it works. If you’re looking for a larger, well constructed watch with a lot of interesting aesthetic features, you should definitely check out the Defy Extreme Forged Carbon.

To many of us, the Defy collection seems like a recent release from Zenith. But the original Defy actually made its debut back in 1969. Yes, the Zenith Defy is older than the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and Patek Philippe Nautilus. The original Defy was a classic steel sport watch, but the collection has evolved since then. The Defy Extreme Forged Carbon takes aesthetic cues from the original Defy to the Extreme.

The first thing you will notice on the Zenith Defy Extreme Forged Carbon is the colorful openworked dial. You don’t see that many skeleton dials on chronographs, but Zenith decided to display the movement in the dial of the Defy Extreme. This means that the El Primero movement is finished beautifully, and the movement components match the forged carbon case. The chronograph subdials are in 3 different colors, green, blue and white, which add a playfulness to the watch. The watch also has a red power indicator at 12 o’clock.

Luckily the Defy Extreme does not suffer from one of the biggest problems with skeleton watches: lack of legibility. The white indices and hands contrast well against gunmetal colored movement. If you’re looking for a highly readable skeleton dial watch, the Zenith Defy Extreme Forged Carbon might just be your watch.

As stated already, the Defy Extreme comes with in an attractive, albeit somewhat large, 45 mm forged carbon case. It is extremely light, durable, and the way the forged carbon is finished/patterned makes each watch almost one of a kind. It fit on my 6.75 inch wrist, but I would love to see a 42mm option in the future.

The watch runs on Zenith’s workhorse El Primero chronograph movement. It’s extremely reliable and one of the most well-known chronograph movements in the industry. When you run the chronograph on the Defy Extreme, you’ll notice that unlike any other chronograph, Zenith’s large chronograph “second hand” actually makes a single rotation of the watch every second (this is a feature exclusive to Zenith). I’m not sure if there is much practical use to this, but it is fun to see the hand zoom around the watch every second.

The watch comes on a nice rubber strap with deployant buckle. Deployant buckles are nice as they prolong the life of your leather straps. But the downside is that they can sometimes be uncomfortable. Here, the distance between the sizing options either made the watch a little too tight were the deployant was digging in, or too loose. I would prefer a simple tang buckle on the watch. And since the strap is rubber, you don’t have to worry about the tang buckle wearing down the rubber. This is certainly a nitpick, and it wouldn’t stop me from buying the Defy Extreme.

The Zenith Defy Extreme Forged Carbon almost gives you a the feeling of wearing a Richard Mille or the like at a fraction of the cost. It’s big, bold and fun. But a fraction of the cost is still a pretty penny. The Zenith Defy Forged Carbon retails for $25,100 USD.