Luke Benedictus
What's been the most visually bonkers watch of the year? Possible contenders would have to include the Louis Vuitton Carpe Diem and the MB&F M.A.D.1 Pink Dial Project. But fresh competition now comes in the form of the Zenith DEFY 21 Double Tourbillon Only Watch 2021.To be fair, the dial of the original Zenith DEFY 21 Felipe Pantone that arrived earlier this year already did a fair impression of the watch as acid flashback from the fifth dimension. The collaboration with Argentinian-Spanish contemporary artist Felipe Pantone sold out within 24 hours and it was easy to understand why. Pantone essentially ignited the openworked DEFY 21 dial with a blitzkrieg of mad details and colours from the metallic sheen of the multi-coloured bridges to the distorted effect on the sword hands. In short, this was a watch that was cheerfully unhinged. ?Now Zenith are pushing things further.For this unique piece, they've added technical complexity to the visual pyrotechnics by changing the canvas to the DEFY 21 Double Tourbillon. Regulated by two independent tourbillons operating at 5Hz for the timekeeping function of the movement and 50Hz for the 1/100th of a second?chronograph, this is a serious piece of mechanical watchmaking in itself. Yet that's merely the backdrop.Pantone has set to work enlivening the open dial and movement decoration with his off-kilter design language. The coating on the bridges reflects a gradient of metallic rainbow tones – the first time this innovative blend of three-dimensional PVD with silicon particles has been used as a surface treatment on a tourbillon chronograph movement. Similarly, the movement is fixed within a metal container that is also given the same rainbow effect. The caseback view shares the same rainbow PVD coating on the bridges, where Unique Piece is engraved under the blackened star-shaped winding rotor.On the dial side, the good news is the hands still look like drunken lightning bolts with a rainbow gradient of colours applied in PVD to each. The second's subdial at 6 o'clock delivers a moire optical effect achieved by thin alternating white and black lines defined by fine laser-engraving and lacquering techniques.But whereas the original DEFY 21 Felipe Pantone had its madcap dial anchored by a black ceramic case, here Zenith plump for a different approach. This case is made entirely of transparent sapphire crystal for the first time in the DEFY collection. This would, no doubt, have presented an additional challenge, as synthetic sapphire requires a long series of painstaking processes to reach its final form from precisely moulding the highly three-dimensional elements to finishing and polishing them to perfection. But the effect brings more light to the dial and extra contrast with the black rubber strap.The Zenith DEFY 21 Double Tourbillon Felipe Pantone Only Watch comes in a special box resembling an art book, as well as an original signed artwork by Felipe Pantone. It will be auctioned by Christie's on November 6th to?raise funds for research into duchenne muscular dystrophy for Only Watch 2021. ?If you fancy making a bid you can do so here,?but be prepared to dig deep: the current estimate is CHF 180,000 – CHF 220,000.
04.11.21