ON THE WRIST: Zenith Defy El Primero 21 Chronograph / 'Swiss Beatz' Limited Edition

49.9000.9004/78.M9000

Harrods / London, 9th March 2019

I can't believe I still have 'On the Wrist' posts to write from my trip to London in March, well... only two more including this one (though the last one combines three watches in one post). So at the end of our long hard day looking at watches, Rich and I stumbled into Harrods feeling rather tired and ready to go home, but not before we visited the watch room. I've already written about the Tudor GMT and I have my experience in the Hublot boutique to recount, but for now I want to concentrate on the first two Zeniths I've had on my wrist.

First up is this rather stunning Zenith Defy, which of course features the El Primero 21 movement. This features two escapements, one for the watch running at 36,000 VpH - 5Hz, and one for the chronograph running at 360,000 VpH 50Hz, meaning the chronograph hand rotates once per second. Obviously this doesn't come cheap, but at £13100 it's possibly an 'affordable' option if you'd like a TAG Heuer Micropendulum but can't quite stretch that far... (not at all the same thing, I know).

I really love the aggressively modern design and the skeleton dial is a thing of beauty and much nicer to look at than these photographs suggest. Despite the 44mm diameter it doesn't feel massive on the wrist and it's still quite a novelty to have a black bracelet on my wrist. This one is ceramic, and again I really appreciate the angular design, but I don't know if I'd go for this option, I think if it came to it I'd probably get one with a 'Hublot' style rubber/leather strap instead.

This one has 100M of water resistance and a 50 hour power reserve, so pretty practical all round really, certainly a lot more usable as an everyday watch than the second Zenith I tried on...

This one caught my eye, because... well, it's pretty obvious 'why' isn't it, it's not every day you see a white ceramic luxury watch on a white rubber and orange alligator leather band.

49.9003.9004/76 .R591 (Swiss Beats Limited Edition)

This one is a collaboration with DJ/producer/rapper 'Swiss Beatz' and features some of his lyrics on the inside of the strap and around the white ceramic bezel... in orange. Yeah, I'm not really digging this one too much, and from what they guy in Harrods said they're not exactly flying off the shelves

It is a bit cheaper at £12,800, but let's be honest, this isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea. I have to say I don't mind the colour scheme too much but the lyrics on the bezel look tacky as hell. For another £300, I'd definitely take the simpler, black version and actually if you take it on a strap instead of the ceramic bracelet the price actually drops to a much more reasonable £10,600.

My first two Zeniths then, an obvious winner and one that's a bit... well, not a winner for me. I did really like the top one though, a stunning watch to look at even if it is a bit out of my price range.