Zenith Explores High-Frequency in Colours with Defy 21 Felipe Pantone

 

Swiss luxury watchmaker Zenith continues to push the limits of performance and design to the extreme for the trailblazers who forge their own path and leave a mark on time with the DEFY EXTREME, an all-terrain 1/100th of a second chronograph. Zenith is also continuing to express the notion of high-frequency precision through light, colours and motion across the DEFY watch collection with a number of new highly chromatic creations.

After coming together to drape the Zenith luxury Manufacture in Le Locle with a unique work of art, Zenith and Argentinian-Spanish artist Felipe Pantone have collaborated in creating an object that is at once a feat exceptional watchmaking prowess and a piece of wearable kinetic art: the DEFY 21 Felipe Pantone.

Using the DEFY 21 1/100th of a second chronograph as his canvas, world-renowned contemporary artist Felipe
Pantone reinterpreted it to incorporate his strikingly colourful aesthetic while playing with frequencies – visually and mechanically. To achieve his “visible spectrum concept”, where all the detectable frequencies of light and its refracted colours come into play with the highest-frequency chronograph in production, Zenith sought new solutions and technologies to make it a reality. This includes the “rainbow” PVD silicon coating applied for the very first time on a movement’s bridges, the intentionally distorted lightning-bolt central hour and minute hands filled with the same rainbow PVD treatment as the movement, and a moiré optical effect produced by fine alternating white and black bands using precise laser-engraving and lacquering techniques.

Limited to 100 pieces and sold out within 24 hours of its commercial release, Zenith DEFY 21 Felipe Pantone timepiece comes with a second iridescent rainbow-effect strap, as well as an artwork and certificate signed by the artist himself.