Zenith returns to the city of Paris for inspiration with a new Zenith Chronomaster Original featuring a verdigris gradient dial. This watch picks up where the Defy Skyline Edition Paris left off back in 2024, showcasing a wholly unique dial for the collection, and this time, the watch also welcomes Zenith’s new folding clasp, the Zenclasp. This is a well understood platform at this point, and one that Zenith continues to iterate on, showing the sheer versatility of the 1969 design. While new complications and materials have taken the focus of the Chronomaster of late, this special edition shows the appeal of the original hasn’t waned.
Stepping back, the color green has seen its popularity rise and fall in recent years, with new interesting examples rather few and far between these days. Zenith has shown a deft hand with the color in the past, and continues to do so here with a gradient verdigris situation that leans a little toward teal. The fade to black at the perimeter is dramatic, and almost decadent in nature, allowing for the crisp white indexing to jump off of the dial. It’s a beautiful effect overall, and one that is inspired by the city of light.
This is set within a familiar 38mm steel case that measures just under 13mm in thickness. THe lugs get a radial brush while a thin bezel is polished to provide some contrast. A three link bracelet is being used with a polished center link, and the new Zenclasp, which allows for tool-less fine adjustments to be made on the fly, totaling up to 10mm. This is a long requested feature that will likely make its way onto many other Zenith references in the near future.
The newest Chronomaster Original continues to be powered by the El Primero caliber 3600, allowing timing down to a tenth of a second. All the usual bells and whistles we know and love with this El Primero, and it’s all visible through an open caseback. Okay, so this one is really just a new dial, and that’s the big draw here, but I do find myself wondering what a new generation of this particular caliber might look like.
Zenith seems to be at their best when they find inspiration outside of their own walls in Le Lecle, whether that’s through collaborative efforts, or special editions such as this. They aren’t afraid to take some risk or delve into palettes you wouldn’t normally expect to see, and while this dial isn’t exactly groundbreaking, it does put this iconic design in a new light, and it works quite well. Zenith will produce just 50 examples of the Paris Edition Chronomaster Original, each priced at EUR 11,800, with availability limited to, well, France. Could be a good one to keep an eye out for in the second hand market down the line. Zenith
Leave a Reply