Zenith Defy Extreme Double Tourbillon

Once again affirming its position as the Master of Chronographs, Zenith brings its most advanced and complicated chronograph movement to date—equipped with two independent tourbillon mechanisms—to the DEFY Extreme line. For the first time, this exceptional 1/100th of a second high-frequency chronograph movement will join the DEFY Extreme core collection in two serially produced references.

The DEFY Extreme Double Tourbillon represents the pinnacle of innovative Haute Horlogerie as Zenith envisions it. This machine represents the true advancement of high-precision chronographs that builds on over 50 years of innovation and improvement of the high-frequency automatic chronograph that began with the El Primero.

Constructed like no other chronograph movement, it is equipped with two independent tourbillons completing rotations in 60 seconds for the time-keeping tourbillon and 5 seconds for the chronograph’s tourbillon, making it among the fastest tourbillons ever made, as well as the only 1/100th of a second chronograph, beating at the phenomenal rate of 360’000 VpH.

Taking its El Primero 21 1/100th of a second chronograph calibre to the next level, the EP 9020 is an automatic double tourbillon chronograph movement, with the 1/100th of a second chronograph’s tourbillon making a rotation every 6 seconds, while the timekeeping tourbillon completes its rotation every 60 seconds.

Conceived with endurance and ruggedness in mind and perfectly suited to house such an intricate and complex movement, the DEFY Extreme Double Tourbillon’s angular and robust case measures 45mm wide and is available in two executions.

The first is crafted entirely in titanium with a mix of satin-brushed, polished and matte surfaces including the bracelet, while the second is done in carbon fiber with sandblasted matte rose gold twelve-sided bezel and pusher protectors on a black textured rubber strap. Its open dial, with applied chronograph counters and tinted transparent sapphire elements, allows for an unobstructed view of the groundbreaking movement and its two tourbillon mechanisms with star-shaped cages.

And it’s not just the movement’s exceptional performance and ultra-modern architecture that make it a showstopper. Something of a signature among Zenith’s recent haute horlogerie creations, the movement’s decoration takes on a modern and heavily contrasting look that emphasizes its futuristic nature.

First, the movement’s open and satin-brushed bridges are coated in a layer of black PVD. Then, the edges of those bridges are highlighted in rose gold color, revealing the geometric forms of the bridges in a true departure from traditional watchmaking decoration techniques.

Since its establishment in 1865, Zenith became the first vertically integrated Swiss watch manufacture, and its watches have accompanied extraordinary figures that dreamt big and strived to achieve the impossible—from Louis Blériot’s history-making flight across the English Channel to Felix Baumgartner’s record-setting stratospheric free-fall jump.

From the creation of the El Primero in 1969, the world’s first automatic chronograph calibre, Zenith has gone on to master high-frequency precision and offers time measurements in fractions of a second, including 1/10th of a second in the Chronomaster collection and 1/100th of a second in the DEFY collection. The DEFY Extreme Double Tourbillon will be available from physical and online Zenith boutiques around as well as official retailers around the world.