IN DEFIANCE OF NORMS The world’s most accurate mechanical wristwatch is now available everywhere

WHEN ZENITH UNVEILED the Defy Lab last year, it elicited awe and disappointment. The watchmaker had invented an entirely new movement made from a wafer of silicon that rendered the balance spring, a component that has essentially remain unchanged since January 1675, and other mainstays obsolete. It truly was a momentous achievement.

Why disappointment? Unfortunately, Zenith only produced 10 units of the Defy Lab (named as such because they were fresh from the laboratory), all of which were snapped up by watch collectors.

The decision for a limited run was understandable. While other watch brands might play the rarity card to slap a bigger price tag on its products, the Zenithy Defy Lab required completely new fabrication methods, and therefore, more wiggle room for experimentation and refinement.

Mass Production Stage

The good news is that Zenith is finally confident enough in its aforementioned laboratory to release the Defy Inventor, the evolution of the Defy Lab. The main differences: Zenith will be producing the Defy Inventor in several hundred units and has improved the oscillator movement in the Defy Lab.

Beyond the patented control system, the case of the Defy Inventor also bears studying. It’s made from lightweight titanium and a new material that Zenith calls Aeronith, an aluminium-polymer composite. Think of the latter as open pore metal foam, all the hardness of aluminium coupled with the lightness of foam. How light? Three times lighter than titanium and 10 per cent lighter than carbon fibre. AM