Few if any brands have ridden the line between preserving their classic models and tasteful updates as well as Zenith. While the brand has no shortage of painstakingly accurate vintage reissues across the Chronomaster Revival and Defy Revival collections, Zenith also knows how to spin these faithful retro designs in a more modern light. 2020’s Chronomaster Revival Shadow is the most successful example of this retro-modern fusion, combining classic ‘70s El Primero lines with a stealthy gray-on-black matte colorway. It’s a watch that still generates significant enthusiast buzz years after its release, still regularly selling out in Zenith boutiques. For 2023, Zenith takes this same “Shadow” design philosophy to the Defy Revival silhouette in what should be a guaranteed crowd-pleaser for the brand. The new Zenith Defy Revival Shadow’s aggressive, blacked-out take on the charismatic 1969 original drastically shifts the character of the Defy Revival’s design, creating one of the most unique and intriguing modern luxury sports watch offerings in the process.
Although functionally identical to the rest of the Defy Revival family at 37mm-wide, the Zenith Defy Revival Shadow’s matte blasted titanium case gives off a dramatically different personality on the wrist. This has never been a particularly large case on the wrist, but the darker charcoal gray titanium material adds a slimming effect to the design for a truly compact feel. The most drastic effect this new uniform darker finish has is on the form itself, however. The Defy Revival’s octagonal hooded-lug case shape is funky and idiosyncratic, with gemstone like faceted chamfers and sharp angles that work to create a brilliant mix of brushed and polished planes in stainless steel. In matte titanium, many of these facets (particularly around the lug structure) fade much more into the visual background on the wrist. This gives the Defy Revival Shadow a more purposeful, flatter look than its stablemates, but it’s a question of personal taste whether this more aggressive, modern style outweighs the loss of perceived visual complexity. Like the rest of the Defy Revival series, this watch packs a beefy, higher-than-expected 300 meter water resistance rating and sports a sapphire display caseback.
Like the case, the Zenith Defy Revival Shadow’s dial may keep the same form as the rest of the series, but replaces the funky ‘60s/’70s feel with a more contemporary, aggressive monochrome look. The sharply angular dauphine handset and unique, brilliantly reflective ridged indices are more or less unchanged, but Zenith replaces the standard Defy Revival’s dégradé dial finish with clean, deep black. This instantly gives the Defy Revival Shadow a far more serious, functional tone than its stablemates, without wholly abandoning the late-‘60s charm of the base design. The khaki lume fill makes a larger impact here than it does on more colorful variants as well, introducing a subtle undercurrent of warmth to a layout that might otherwise come across as overly stark. Like nearly all vintage-inspired Zeniths, there’s an elephant in the room when discussing this dial, however. The cutout date window at 4:30 continues to be a hotspot for fervent conflict among enthusiasts, with some outright loathing the placement on principle. For the record, I personally love it. In practice, the date window disappears in between the wholly preserved hours indices, meaning this complication remains unobtrusive until one actively searches for it. From a distance, it might even be mistaken for a no-date dial. What’s more, Zenith employs characteristic attention to detail with this window, continuing the outer seconds track around it to ensure that zero legibility is lost.
As with the rest of the Defy Revival series, Zenith powers the Defy Revival Shadow with its in-house Elite 670 automatic movement. It may lack some of the exotic accoutrements of the brand’s higher-end movements, but the Elite 670 is a reliable, solid platform featuring a 50-hour power reserve and a smooth 28,800 bph beat rate. Visually, the Elite 670 is impressively well-appointed, with radial Côtes de Genève on the bridges and balance cock, linear Côtes de Genève across the star-shaped skeleton rotor, and a mainplate in tight, crisp perlage.
Of course, a major part of the Defy Revival series’ character is its distinctive ladder bracelet, and the Zenith Defy Revival Shadow keeps this element intact. Although it’s rendered in case-matching matte blasted titanium, this shift in materials does not affect the bracelet nearly as much as it does the case. There are no complex facets or polished chamfers for this new finish to hide, so instead of visually simplifying the ladder bracelet’s look, it instead brings the package further in line with other modern bracelet-forward luxury sport watches on the market.
It’s a difficult task to introduce modern elements into a classic watch design without completely overshadowing the original character of the watch. It’s harder still to deftly balance the old and the new in an attractive synthesis, but that’s exactly what Zenith has done with the Defy Revival Shadow. Like previous Shadow models before it, the Zenith Defy Revival Shadow’s clean, contemporary gray-on-black walks a tightrope between vintage and modern that should connect with a broad range of enthusiasts. The Zenith Defy Revival Shadow is available now through authorized dealers. MSRP for this watch stands at $7,400 USD as of press time. For more information, please visit the brand’s website.
