![]() ![]() It is, as you can see, quite beautiful, but it has a rather unusual secret. I also like that the chronograph hands are color-coded blue.īut by far the most interesting aspect of this watch is its moon phase complication. To make space for all of the other complications, however, we only have a single subdial dedicated to it, but that's enough for the vast majority of tasks. Of course, being an El Primero, it has a chronograph. They've gotten around the limitations of the open heart in other ways before as well, including a gorgeous retrograde date limited edition. That design side effect comes in really handy when you don't want the date ring to get in the way of an open heart. Big dates can get away with using two much smaller date rings as opposed to a conventional date's giant ring. While they do make the date much easier to read, the reason Zenith used a big date here was actually more out of necessity than anything. The way they work is just so interesting to me. The big date complication is one of my favorites. Zenith has removed that plate and added some nice perlage to the bridges. If you turn the mechanical watch you're wearing right now over, and look at the balance wheel, unless you happen to be wearing a skeleton, you'll notice you'll just peer into a plate behind it. They're also quite well decorated and skeletonized. They're much, much larger than other open hearts, revealing the entire escapement in beautiful iridescent silicon. Whether you share that feeling, Zenith's open hearts are in a league of their own. Open hearts are somewhat seen as passé these days, but I never stopped loving them. Apparently, there wasn't enough going on for Zenith, so we have a massive open heart thrown in for good measure. In just this one watch, you get a chronograph, a big date, a moon phase and a day/night complication. The source of this complexity is, as you might expect, its complications. But when you've been collecting watches as long as I have, you learn to appreciate the brands that can throw the rule book out and still produce a good looking watch. You should take a good look at those watches. Most brands wouldn't even attempt a watch this complex in a mass produced model, but if they did, they'd be aiming for some sort of legibility-enhancing symmetrical layout. Few watches better showcase Zenith's absolutely crazy dial layout and total irreverence for conventional design as well as this one does. Indeed, I'd actually say it's one of my favorite watches of all time. It's no stretch to say that the Chronomaster Grande Date is one of my favorite Zeniths of all time. It wears this complexity on its sleeve in a uniquely avant garde, Zenith kind of way, featuring arguably the best open heart design in the industry. The Chronomaster Grande Date is the most complex Chronomaster model and one of the most complex production watches that Zenith currently makes.
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