Zenith has been working with Felipe Pantone since 2020 when the Argentinian-Spanish artist created a multicoloured tarpaulin to go over the façade of the manufacture’s main historic building, bringing a contemporary art installation to Switzerland’s Le Locle. Colour is everything to the artist who loves to explore the displacement of the light spectrum and document how it impacts colour and creates vibrations.
Zenith X Felipe Pantone Defy 21
His second project got to the core of Zenith’s business with the creation of a limited edition Defy 21 timepiece. This unique collaborative wristwatch featured the artist’s signature dynamic style with a grid pattern on the bezel, lightning bolt hands, a gradient rainbow PVD treatment on parts of the dial and movement, and rainbow indexes. As could have been predicted, the piece sold out in a heartbeat.
Only watch 2021
Zenith also called upon the artist to assist in the creation of its unique piece for Only Watch in 2021 – the Zenith X Felipe Pantone Defy 21 Double Tourbillon – that sold for an astounding CHF 480,000, which was over double the original estimate and a record price for a Zenith watch sold at auction. Only one lucky person got their hands on that one!
Planned Iridescence in Time
Now the duo is back with a new limited edition Defy Extreme Felipe Pantone out this week, on the 27th October 2022 at 2pm CET to be precise, so get your credit card ready! This new edition takes its inspiration from the artist’s highly acclaimed Planned Iridescence series of artworks that merges the digital and physical by highlighting the displacement of the light spectrum and displaying the different dynamics of shape and colour. The resulting optical effects are truly mesmerizing to behold especially in the Defy Extreme model that was chosen for its sharp lines and immersive volume.
Zenith X Felipe Defy Extreme
The timepiece comes in a mirror polished stainless steel case and features a translucent blue dodecagonal bezel and matching blue chronograph pusher protectors that have been crafted from blue yttrium aluminosilicate, a crystalline glass material similar to synthetic sapphire. This clear blue glass is further enhanced with a semi-transparent blue silicone strap, but this is just the beginning of the play on colour.
It's Dial Time
The dial is made up of sapphire elements that appear both translucent and metallic at the same time. Turn the timepiece towards the light and an array of colours and geometric patterns dance on the dial. This shimmering effect is achieved using an innovative physio-chemical process that is used to create some hidden micro-engraved patterns that are just 100 nanometres deep. The hour and minute hands use the same three-dimensional PVD technique used in the previous editions to bring this magical rainbow effect to the watch.
Chromatics in Motion
Powering this new timepiece is the El Primero 1/100th of a second automatic high-frequency chronograph that has also received Felipe Pantone’s magic touch with an open, star-shaped oscillating weight that has been finished in the same gradient rainbow 3D PVD as the hands. As a reminder, this is Zenith’s most cutting-edge chronograph movement that features two independently driven regulating organs, beating at 50Hz and 5Hz, for the chronograph function and timekeeping respectively, ensuring the utmost timekeeping precision.
Completing the magic, each of the 100 timepieces comes in a box that looks like an art book. This unique package has also been designed by the artist and feature’s a work of art from his Planned Iridescence series. The cover is treated with the same optical effect as the dial, only using a different technique, and it comes with a transparent plexiglass hardcover, so that you will want to display the book as much as you will want to wear the watch.
