Zenith DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow Review

Just over a year ago Zenith released the DEFY Extreme Diver which was a stunning professional dive watch crafted out of titanium and available with either a black or blue dial. A few months later they followed up with a release of the DEFY Extreme Diver with a white dial. The watch really appealed to me with its somewhat aggressive look feeling like it could have been released in the mid 2000s with watches like the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore and Hublot Big Bang. This era of watchmaking is still my favorite, so it's no wonder I just loved these watches. We were even able to review the blue dial version of the Zenith DEFY Extreme Diver earlier in the year and I came away extremely impressed.

Recently Zenith released a new version of the DEFY Extreme Diver this time in the Shadow colorway. For the Shadow variant Zenith uses a grade 5 titanium case that has been micro-blasted to a matte blackened finish. Paired with the all black look are the neon yellow highlights around the minute track as well as on the hands. While the black and white dial versions of the original DEFY Extreme Divers were some of my favorite released watches of the last year, this new Shadow version is probably my favorite modern watch currently for sale. We'll get more to that later in the review, but let's start with going over a quick history of Zenith, for a more in-depth history of the brand please read out review of the DEFY Skyline Black Ceramic.



Zenith was founded by 22 year old Georges Favre-Jacot in Le Locle, Switzerland in 1865. At the time most watch manufactures sourced components from a wide array of artisans scattered around the region. Favre-Jacot's vision was to unite all of these artisans under one roof and create a truly vertical manufacture. This would allow for greater quality control, innovation and lower costs that formed the foundation for the future success of Zenith. Initially the brand was named after its founder, but in 1911 was changed to Zenith after an exceptional movement was produced and the brand would now stand for the pinnacle of performance.

Early in its history, Zenith was best known for their extremely accurate marine chronometers and pilot's watches. Zenith even trademarked "Pilote" in 1904 and is the only watch brand that can print "Pilot" on their dials. Zenith movements also were famed for winning accuracy competitions, even winning five consecutive Neuchatel Observatory prizes in a row from 1950 to 1954 with the Calibre 135.



Current day Zenith is probably best known for the outstanding and groundbreaking El Primero movement which debuted in 1969. The El Primero took seven years to develop and was the world's first high frequency automatic chronograph movement. Putting things into perspective, most of the largest and most respected watch brands didn't even start producing their own chronograph calibers until well into the 2000s and those were traditional lower beat 4Hz movements. Zenith was able to produce a 5Hz (36,000 vph) chronograph movement in-house decades before. This achievement wasn't lost by their peers and Rolex even contracted with Zenith to use a lower beat version of the El Primero movement in their famed Daytona chronograph for many years.

During the quartz crisis of the 1970s, Zenith was purchased by the American electronics company Zenith Radio Corporation who demanded all production of mechanical watches stopped at Zenith. One of Zenith's watchmakers, Charles Vermot, knew this decision was a terrible idea and took it upon himself to hide all the tools and technical drawings needed to produce the El Primero away for a day when mechanical watchmaking would be valued again. His hunch was correct and in the mid 1980s interest for mechanical watches started to increase again after quartz fatigue. Soon thanks to the mission undertook by Vermot, Zenith was able to produce the El Primero caliber again.

In 1999, Zenith was acquired by the luxury goods group LVMH which could provide the brand with the resources and stability never seen in its long history. Under LVMH Zenith has expanded its Chronomaster line which displays the heritage of the El Primero, the DEFY collection which ventures into cutting edge designs and case materials as well as the Pilot's collection with pays homage to the brands legacy in aviation. All these decades later, Zenith is still operating in the historic manufacture in Le Locle, which is a testament to its long lasting legacy.



Initial Thoughts

Now having gone over a brief history of Zenith, let's talk about my initial impressions of the DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow. When the watch arrived, the first thing I noticed about it was the blackened look of the case. Through micro-blasting Zenith is able to give the titanium case of the DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow a matte nearly black appearance. While I loved the traditional titanium hue of the original DEFY Extreme Diver models, the dark grey look of the Shadow just made an already stunning watch that much better looking. Even more impressive is that this color wasn't a result of a coating such as PVD or carbide, but is caused directly by the micro-blasting finishing technique.

The second thing I noticed about the DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow were the neon highlights on the minute ring and hands. When paired with the titanium bracelet and rubber strap, the DEFY Extreme Diver has a nearly all blacked out look, the insanely bright yellow highlights really liven the watch up. While the watch would have been extremely handsome with no injection of color, the near tennis ball yellow really makes the DEFY Extreme Diver jump off of your wrist and grabs attention.



The last thing that left an impression on me during my initial viewing of the DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow was its display caseback. Underneath the rear sapphire crystal lays the iconic El Primero automatic movement finished to a grey hue. On top of the movement sits an awesome winding rotor in the shape of a star with the bottom two points connected to the oscillating weight. The movement's color and star shaped rotor do an amazing job of completing the package in terms of design on the DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow.

Technical Specifications

With my initial impressions of the watch and the history of Zenith behind us, let's now take a look at the technical specifications of the DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow. The case of the watch is crafted out of grade 5 titanium that has been micro-blasted to create a matte finished dark grey color. The watch has a case diameter of 42.5 mm and a lug to lug length of 48 mm. On our scale the DEFY Extreme Diver weighed in at 121 grams on the rubber strap and at its thickest point is 15.5 mm tall.

The Zenith DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow uses a slightly raised flat sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on both sides. Underneath the crystal clear sapphire is the matte black dial with repeating "starry sky" star patterns cut into it that pays homage to brand heritage. The pattern is rather subtle and takes the right lighting for it to really stand out.



Zenith uses applied polished rhodium-plated bar hour markers which are faceted to reflect the most light possible. These hour markers are also coated with Super-Luminova SLN C1 which glow a stunning green in low light. The three centrally mounted hands being hours, minutes and seconds are also rhodium-plated and faceted to match the hour markers. The hour and seconds hands are coated with matching Super-Luminova to the hour markers, but the minute hand has a more bluish green lume that matches the lumed triangle on the bezel. The skeletonized base of the hour and minute hands along with the tip of the seconds hand is done in the neon yellow we spoke about earlier.

At 3 o'clock is a black backed date window that is framed in white. At 12 o'clock is an applied polished Zenith star logo with Zenith and El Primero printed in white. At 6 o'clock are "600 Meters" and "1969 Feet" printed in white. The 1969 for feet is a nod to the release year of the original El Primero. Finally around the outside of the bezel is the neon yellow minute track that along with the yellow found on the hands really brings the dial of the DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow to life.



Moving on from the dial is the thin black ceramic bezel that sits between the dodecagon that holds the sapphire crystal and the octagonal shaped case. The bezel is nicely fluted to provide exceptional grip, even with dive gloves on. All the Arabic numerals and hash marks on the bezel are filled with lume which glows a matching green to the dial elements in low light. The tip of the bezel found at 12 o'clock glows bluish green to match the minute hand. Since the minute hand and this lumed point are used to time dives it makes sense that they match each other and are a different color from other lumed elements. Diving can cause a lot of mental stress, so anything that can lower the amount of thinking needed to be done underwater is appreciated by divers.

The ceramic bezel is uni-directional and requires 120 clicks to complete a full rotation. The bezel is easy to operate and doesn't take too much force to turn. The resulting clicks when rotating the bezel aren't too loud and the click action is extremely sure with minimal back play. The edge of the bezel has twelve scalloped edges which act as the grip points for your fingers.



The case of the Zenith DEFY Extreme Diver is completely matte in finish with no polished areas reaffirming that this is a true tool watch. Looking at the profile of the watch you can see that slightest of curves to form to your wrist. On the left hand side of the case is a fairly flush automatic helium relief valve to help with saturation diving. The right hand side features a large screw down crown along with oversized crown guards that are held in place by two bolts each. The crown is deeply scalloped and on top is an engraving of Zenith's star logo. Once un-screwed you can manually wind the automatic movement in its resting position. Pulling the crown out to position one allows you to set the date and pulling the crown all the way out stops the seconds hand and lets you set the time. Pushing the crown back in causes no jump in the minute hand and getting the crown to catch to be screwed back in requires no additional care. With the screw down crown the DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow is rated to 600 meters of water resistance.

Flipping the case over shows off the screwed down case back held in place by four case bolts. Important information about the watch like the reference and case numbers along with the water resistance are engraved on the case back. The bezel of the caseback also is done in a dodecagonal shape seen on top of the watch. Beneath the display case back covered by a sapphire crystal beats the in-house Swiss made El Primero 3620 automatic movement. The movement is topped with a star shaped winding rotor connected to the oscillating weight by the lower two tips of the star. The weight is also engraved with "Zenith Manufacture" denoting the in-house created movement. The movement is also media blasted to best match the look of the micro-blasted titanium case. There is also heavy usage of brushing on the movement and rotor. The monochromic look of the movement finishing highlights the non-metallic silicone movement components which have a bluish purple look to them.



The El Primero 3620 beats away at 36,000 vph (5 Hz) and has a power reserve of 60 hours. The functions of the movement are hours, minutes, seconds and date. The 3620 is comprised of an amazing 219 individual components. On our timegrapher the movement showed an accuracy of +2 seconds per day when averaged out over several positions, which is within chronometer specifications.

The Zenith DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow has an integrated strap design that uses Zenith's quick strap change system. This system requires a button in the case to be pushed to release the strap. The system is extremely easy and quick to use, but this limits what straps can be used with the watch. Luckily Zenith included three different strap choices with the DEFY Extreme Diver. The lug with of the watch is 25 mm and each strap starts out at that width.



The first strap option included with the DEFY Extreme Dive Shadow is a micro-blasted titanium bracelet which tapers down from 25 mm at the case to 17 mm at the deployant clasp. The clasp features both the Zenith star logo as well as Zenith branding. Buttons on each side of the clasp are required to be pushed in to release the butterfly clasp. The h-shaped links are held in place by screws which is our preferred method of adding and removing links.

The second strap option is a neon yellow fabric strap that has black highlights. This strap is fixed to the case by two end link strap adapters. The end links allow any pass-through style strap with a 20 mm width to be used with the DEFY Extreme Diver. The strap is finished off with a micro-blasted Zenith branded pin buckle. I do think it would be possible for Zenith to create similar end links that use a standard spring bar to allow any 20 mm traditional strap to be used. This is what IWC did with the Velcro strap adapter for the older GST Aquatimer 2000 and Porsche Design Ocean 2000.



Finally there is the black cordura effect rubber strap with a micro-blasted folding titanium clasp. The rubber strap has large venting holes on both sides and tapers down to 18 mm at the clasp.The folding clasp also features Zenith branding and requires two buttons to be pushed to release the clasp. The first part of the clasp is held in place by friction and then the piece of the clasp with the pushers locks the clasp in place. Of the three strap options, the rubber strap fits my personal preferences the most and is the way I wore the watch the majority of the time I had it.

On The Wrist

From the moment the Zenith DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow arrived I tried to find any excuse to wear the watch. The titanium bracelet didn't add much weight to the watch, but having gone through too many Texas summers with bracelets being too tight in the heat and too loose indoors I can no longer wear watches on a bracelet. The fabric strap is stunning and complements the colors of the case and dial nicely, but I've also never been a huge fan of pass through straps either. I found my perfect strap in the extremely supple black rubber strap. An added bonus as well was that the rubber strap came on a deployant clasp which I think is crucial for more expensive watches with the added security you have from dropping a watch when putting it on or taking it off.



The rubber strap looks phenomenal with the vents on each side of the case, somewhat reminding me of what Richard Mille does with their strap designs. The buckle of the clasp attaches to the strap with two pins and gives me total confidence that the strap isn't going anywhere by mistake. The rubber strap also required zero break in to be extremely comfortable. Most importantly the strap never moved when on wrist and stayed centered and the vents let my wrists breathe some during the triple degree temperatures we're seeing in Austin right now.

At 121 grams on the rubber strap and deployant clasp the Zenith DEFY Extreme Diver isn't exactly feather light, but it's light enough to pretty much disappear on the wrist. The watch made a great wrist companion for running everyday errands and never became a bother on the wrist or caused any wrist fatigue. The black and yellow aesthetic of the watch also went very well with my typical dress of a black t-shirt, shorts and sneakers.



At 48 mm of lug to lug length the DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow is a bit smaller than my 50 mm sweet spot. This wasn't too much of an issue since being an integrated strap design there was a bit of a flare to the strap and the watch actually wears a bit larger than it is. The DEFY Extreme Diver also has a decent amount of thickness to it, so that also helps it appear larger than it actually is. These are all positives to me and made the watch feel right at home on my wrist like the larger watches in my personal collection do.

To test legibility I use a simple test of trying to tell the time at a glance while driving. In this test dive watches always do the best with their large hands and indices, while skeleton watches do the worst with their lack of a true dial to create contrast. The matte black dial and highly polished indices and hands coated with white Super-Luminova had nice contrast with each other and the DEFY Extreme Diver aced my legibility test. The neon yellow minute ring does distract your eye at first glance and using Arabic numerals might have helped with legibility, but as is the watch couldn’t have done much better. Also with the amount of lume Zenith uses on the dial and bezel of the DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow, low light time telling is a breeze. The Super-Luminova also kept glowing for a decent amount of time allowing you to tell the time well after it had been exposed to a light source.



Strangely when I wore the watch out to run errands and also to dinner and drinks the Zenith DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow received a lot of looks and even received some comments and questions. I was a bit surprised by the attention the watch received since it has a mostly black aesthetic. I guess the super bright minute ring and dial elements did wonders to attract eyes. I feel if you really wanted to get the watch noticed you could wear it on the neon yellow fabric strap. Of the people that asked questions and commented on the watch most really loved the yellow highlights as well as the blackened look of the titanium and visible El Primero movement. The price of the DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow did seem fair to those I told it to as well.

Value and Position in the Market

Speaking of price, the Zenith DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow retails for $12,400. For that price you are getting a full grade 5 titanium watch that has been micro-blasted to a stunning blackened matte finish. Inside beats one of the most respected movements of all time in the high frequency El Primero, also in our testing the caliber ran at an extremely accurate rate. The DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow has a ridiculous 600 meters of water resistance as well. Finally the watch comes with a full titanium bracelet, rubber strap with a titanium deployant clasp and a fabric strap with a titanium pin buckle. If you have every bought a strap or clasp / buckle from a top Swiss manufacture you know how much those components cost, so having a bracelet and two straps, a clasp and buckle included is a huge value. Now is the time like with all of our reviews to take a look at other watches with similar features and specifications and see how the DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow holds up value wise.



First up we have the Sea-Dweller from Rolex which has a 43 mm stainless steel case. The Sea-Dweller runs on an in-house movement with 70 hours of power reserve and has a water resistance of 1,220 meters. The Sea-Dweller has a pretty traditional dive watch look to it and isn't offered in high tech titanium. The Sea-Dweller also only comes on a stainless steel bracelet and does not offer a rubber or fabric strap option. The Sea-Dweller is a bit more expensive than the DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow at $13,750.

Moving on is the Seamaster Planet Ocean 600M from Omega which has a 45.5 mm case crafted out of ceramic. The watch runs on an in-house movement with 60 hours of power reserve and has 600 meters of water resistance like the DEFY Extreme Diver. The ceramic of the Planet Ocean gives the watch a blacked out look like the DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow as well. The Planet Ocean is just a bit more expensive than the Zenith at $13,000.



Next up is the Fifty Fathoms Tech from Blancpain which has a 45 mm case crafted out of titanium. The Fifty Fathoms Tech runs on an in-house movement with a full 120 hours of power reserve and only half of the water resistance of the Zenith at 300 meters. The Fifty Fathoms Tech is much more expensive than the DEFY Extreme Diver shadow at $22,700. The Fifty Fathoms Tech does include two rubber straps of your choice as well.

Finally we have the Royal Oak Offshore Diver from Audemars Piguet that has a 42 mm case crafted out of stainless steel. The Royal Oak Offshore Diver runs on an in-house movement with 60 hours of power reserve and once again has half the water resistance of the DEFY Extreme Diver at 300 meters. The Royal Oak Offshore is also not offered in titanium and only comes on a rubber strap. The Royal Oak Offshore Diver is much more expensive than the DEFY Extreme Diver at $32,000.



By looking at these four watches you can see that the Zenith DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow offers tremendous value for its retail price. For the most part the DEFY Extreme Diver offers a similar power reserve from its in-house movement which is impressive since the El Primero runs at a higher frequency that requires more power to operate than the other watches that are not high frequency. The DEFY Extreme Diver also offers the second highest water resistance rating of the group. Besides the Fifty Fathoms coming with two rubber straps, the other watches didn't come with the wide range of strap choices the Zenith comes with either.

Closing Thoughts

So in the end is the Zenith DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow for me? I'll let you in on a little secret… I keep a spreadsheet with watches in our personal collection along with watches I'd like to own one day. The list of watches I'd like to add to our collection is pretty short and we just took off the Porsche Design by IWC Ocean 2000 having just acquired one. That list is made up of an older rose gold Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Rubberclad, a similar era Royal Oak Offshore ladies for my wife and now the Zenith DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow. That's it…



With that being said, the DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow is one thousand percent a watch for me. The more aggressive design and look of the blackened micro-blasted titanium fits in perfectly with watches that I keep in my personal collection. The watch features one of the most well known and respected movements in the industry and our test results showed how deadly accurate it was. The ability to drastically change how the watch looks by swapping out the three supplied straps is a huge bonus and not something you ever see offered by a watch manufacture. The mostly black look of the watch with the splash of neon yellow color really sets off the DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow as well.

So would I consider the watch perfect? Of course a lot of reviewing a watch is subjective and personal tastes naturally have an effect. I'd say the Zenith DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow is very nearly a perfect watch for me. I can think of one thing that would be easy for Zenith to change that would move the DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow to perfect status for me. While I do love the neon yellow highlights, I love orange even more with orange pretty much being the official color of Austin and the color of my alma mater, the University of Texas. Zenith could simply take the orange highlighted dial and hands from the original release of the DEFY Extreme Diver and swap them with the yellow highlighted parts of the Shadow and create my perfect watch in a unique DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow Orange… we can all dream right? The blacked micro-blasted titanium case with orange highlights would just be it for me.



So would I then recommend the Zenith DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow to somebody looking for a luxury dive watch? I mean, of course I would if I loved the watch so much myself. The DEFY Extreme Diver is way more than capable with 600 meters of water resistance and ample lume. The lightweight titanium case and included choice of three vastly different straps also makes sure that just about anybody can find a combination that makes the watch a treat on their wrists. The El Primero 3620 provides a weekend proof 60 hours of power reserve while humming away at 36,000 vph as well. When looking at other luxury divers from Rolex, Omega, Blancpain and Audemars Piguet the value of the DEFY Extreme Diver really shines through. While the blacked micro-blasted titanium case is rather subtle, the yellow highlights are not. So if you plan on wearing the DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow as a daily watch, just make sure a louder watch will fit in all your daily situations. Otherwise, I can't see any reason to not fully give the DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow my full recommendation.

I'd really like to thank Zenith for sending us the DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow to review. Based on how much I enjoyed my time with the blue version of the watch, I really expected to like the Shadow at least as much. When I got the watch in hand the Shadow easily exceeded my already high expectations. The change in going with a dark micro-blasted case really raised the watch to another level in my opinion. The addition of the neon yellow accents also solidified the DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow as by far one of my favorite watches I have seen in years. Based on recent releases from Zenith, I really can't wait to see what the brand has planned for the rest of the year and beyond.



For more information about the DEFY Extreme Diver Shadow please visit : Zenith

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: 97.9600.3620/21.I300

Retail Price: $12,800

Case Size: 42.5 mm

Lug to Lug: 48 mm

Thickness: 15.5 mm

Weight: 121 grams (On Rubber Strap with Deployant Clasp)

Case Material: Grade 5 Micro-Blasted Titanium

Bezel: 120 Click Black Ceramic Uni-Directional

Strap: Micro-Blasted Titanium Bracelet / Yellow Fabric Strap with Pin Buckle / Black Rubber Strap with Deployant Clasp

Movement: Swiss Made In-House El Primero 3620 Automatic Movement

Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds and Date

Power Reserve: 60 Hours

Water Resistance: 600 Meters