VIDEO: The Zenith Defy El Primero 21 – a cutting-edge chronograph

Felix Scholz

Earlier this week we had a look at Zenith’s entry point into the Defy family, the solid-dialled Defy Classic. Well, today we’re going to kick it up a notch with something the brand is particularly famous for — a chronograph. And not just any chrono, but the Defy El Primero 21, a watch that marries the modern silhouette and skeletonised look of the Defy with an awesome movement. The El Primero 21 is an evolution of the revolutionary El Primero, which debuted way back in 1969, when Woodstock was the place to be and Vietnam was not the recreational travel destination it is today. And while coupling an automatic movement with a chronograph was a big deal back then, we’ve moved on a little. The EP 21 still marks time but it does so using two regulators, one for timekeeping and the other for the chronograph. The latter beats at a whopping 50Hz, allowing you to time events up to an accuracy of a hundredth of a second. In turn this means that the central chronograph hand makes a revolution every second. And yes, we know we didn’t capture that in the video – we’re kicking ourselves. All told, the Defy El Primero 21 presents a solid image of what the future of Zenith could look like: modern inside and out.