One of the surprise hits of Watches & Wonders 2025 came from Zenith in the form of the GFJ, a watch that celebrated the maison’s 160th anniversary by bringing back the original caliber 135. The watch offered a stunning take on Zenith’s classic formal design language, and opened the door to a new collection in the process. This year, we’re getting a pair of new GJF watches that expand on the vision of the watch in their own interesting ways. Zenith is also using two of the most on-trend materials here: stone dials, and tantalum cases.
The GFJ takes its name from Zenith’s founder, Georges Favre-Jacot, and extends his pursuit of precision to the modern day. In doing so, Zenith is using a modern incarnation of their famous caliber 135, which was conceived with one goal in mind, accuracy. The 135 and eventual 135-O would go on to compete, successfully, in chronometre competitions, and Zenith has preserved that purpose of performance in the newest iterations of the caliber by having it COSC certified.
Accuracy as a theme isn’t something that modern Zenith has been all that troubled by, as it’s rarely brought up with the likes of their other collections. Precision in measuring time is another story, of course, with their high frequency movements able to track all the way down to tenths and even hundredths of seconds (frankly, beyond the human capacity to measure accurately anyway). With the GFJ, Zenith is able to circle back to accuracy in a way that makes a lot of sense in a historic context.
The newest members of the collection are presented in two very different ways. First is a yellow gold case hosting a dramatic bloodstone dial, which boasts a deep green base cut with bits of red minerals. Obviously, each example will be different, so your mileage may vary, but on average this is a very dynamic piece of stone. Second is a tantalum case that uses an onyx black dial with mother of pearl accents in the subsidiary seconds dial. This is one is a far more demure take on the design, but works just as well.
Both watches remain 39mm in diameter, and 10.5mm thick. The stepped case design brings another dimension to the design, while the handwinding caliber 135 is visible through the exhibition back. The watches remain on the premium end, standing in contrast to what we generally expect from Zenith, but their execution speaks for itself. Notably, there are no bracelet options being offered on these as there was with the original blue variation in platinum.
The yellow gold GFJ with bloodstone dial is limited to 161 pieces (last year’s model was limited to 160 for the anniversary) and is priced at $51,900, while the tantalum example is limited to just 20 pieces, and will be priced at $83,400. Zenith