Zenith’s Defy Zero G has always been a flex. Not hype, real engineering. Since 2008, the brand has been chasing one problem, gravity, and doing it with a gimbal that keeps the escapement level as you move. Think ship chronometers, shrunk to the wrist. Where a tourbillon averages errors, this setup aims to cancel them in real time. It is a strange and stubborn idea, and it works because Zenith spent years on miniature bevel gears and a tiny differential that keeps torque steady no matter how the module tilts.
For the brand’s 160th year, Zenith puts that machine in sapphire. Two new Defy Zero G models land, one in deep blue sapphire, one in fully clear sapphire. Both use a 46 millimeter case cut from blocks of the stuff, which is near diamond on the hardness scale. You can see straight through the watch, front to back, and the zero-gravity module hangs at six o’clock like a small mechanical lighthouse that refuses to lean.
The dial is off center. Hours, minutes, and small seconds sit on a plate of lapis lazuli with faceted luminous markers. The stone is midnight with flecks that catch the light, and no two pieces look alike. A power reserve tracker sits at three o’clock and reads out to about fifty hours. The rest is open. Bridges form a thin star motif. The counterweight on the gravity module carries a small engraving that hints at the night sky.
Inside is the hand wound El Primero 8812S. It beats at 5 Hz. The escapement wheel is silicon. The anchor is nickel silicon. The balance uses a double arrow regulator that nods to Charles Fleck, one of the old Zenith timekeepers. The headline, though, never changes. The regulating organ lives inside a weighted, gimbal mounted cage that stays horizontal as your wrist turns. Because the position is fixed, regulation can happen in a single plane. That is the claim to precision, and it is a bold one.
The module itself is tiny now. Zenith says the current gyroscopic unit is about thirty percent of the original volume. It packs 139 parts into roughly 1.3 cubic centimeters, and rides on nine ceramic ball bearings that do not need oil. It is watchmaking as stubborn craft, not gadgetry.
Both versions come on a blue integrated alligator strap with a folding clasp. Each color is limited to ten pieces worldwide. They will be sold through Zenith boutiques, online and in store, and through select retailers.
A note on fit. Forty six millimeters in sapphire is not small. The case will wear large, and the drama is the point. You buy this to watch that module float level while the rest of your world tilts. Some will call it excess. Others will call it proof that a century and a half in, Zenith still likes to argue with physics, one gear at a time.