The Star Of The Show |
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Few will have felt the pressure prior to this year’s Baselworld exhibition as much as Zenith CEO Jean Frederic Dufour; his first year as steward of the great brand has been rife with speculation concerning the direction in which he will lead the famous chronograph manufacturer. Dufour made no secret of his intentions to significantly reduce the brand’s collections in terms of diversity, citing an unmanageable number of different references as a primary factor, with the Defy collections contributing more than their fair share of the references in question. It was therefore unsurprising that in the build-up to this year’s exhibition, most expected the brand to unveil new additions to its Class and Chronomaster collections, those being the more classically styled, with focus being drawn away from the Defy collections that Thierry Nataf, Dufour’s predecessor, was certain would re-invigorate the brand. |
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What actually transpired was altogether more drastic. TimepieceReview was invited to discover the 2010 novelties during Baselworld and did so with high expectations: On first impression the most striking characteristic of many of Zenith’s 2010 novelties was the unfamiliar case design; many of these latest creations are not from any pre-existing collection, they are something very different. So different in fact that one may not recognise them as the work of Zenith at all, at least not the Zenith of recent years anyway. The next surprising discovering was the quantity of watches on display; surprising not simply because of the small number, as such a number of novelties is fairly standard for addition models, but surprising in light of the news that these novelties are largely intended not to complement existing models, but to replace them. |
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In addition to a significant down sizing, Zenith’s collections have also been subject to something of a re-shuffle resulting in several watch ‘families’ based on the type of movement, those being Academy (Haute Horlogerie), El Primero and Elite, with the Defy and Ladies collections being separate from the rule and the other collections. |
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