Zenith is one of our favorite brands, they strike a perfect balance between excellent in-house watchmaking and striking standout designs – without being ridiculously expensive.
The Defy Revival A3648 we have here is a re-issue dive watch from 1969, plucked right out of the Zenith history book. It was a watch known, for its time, to be ultra compact for a serious functional dive watch, a little bit of a feat of engineering for its time. And even today, I’d consider this watch very compact and classy for a diver, with most dive watches these days sporting heftier cases and bracelets. Just take a look at the benchmark Rolex Submariner that Rolex labels as a 41mm watch, by contrast this Defy Revival comes in at a vintage 37mm.
Aesthetic Choices
The watch design itself is very Zenith oriented, with an angular 8 sided faceted case, along with a rather intriguing “lugless” bracelet connection, and skinny knurled bezel. This is a dive watch, that despite its size, has some flash – as all the angled sides and polished surfaces tend to catch the light just right. If the metal finishing doesn’t attract your attention, the highlighter orange on the bezel and outer dial section certainly will. The hue of the orange chosen here is not burnt orange, nor is it siren orange, it’s truly fluorescent.
As you can imagine, on a 37mm diver with a unidirectional bezel, the actual dial size is going to be quite compact as well. It’s a small dial to read the time on, but the wide and bright orange hands aid in this regard. You also have a date window between 4 and 5 o’clock that lines up with the irregular crown location. The indices are also not applied, which I think was a good choice, as it seems to give the compact dial some lateral breathing room.
The design choices and overall measurements of the watch translate to perfect fit on my 6.5 inch wrist. It’s quite rare these days to find a professional dive watch that’s such a joy to wear on a daily basis. The Defy Revival A3648 is both lightweight and visually proportional on wrist, making it an excellent every day wear choice with some colorful flash.
Manufacture Movement
One of the greatest things about vintage and modern Zenith is their use of in-house movements, having once made the movement for the Daytona 16520 series from around 1988 to 2000 – they certainly know a thing or two about proper movement manufacturing, regulation and even decoration. So flipping this watch over, it is no surprise that we’re looking at the legendary, and quarter century tested, in-house built Elite 670 automatic movement with 50 hours of power reserve. It’s a great looking movement as well, and it’s very thin – but oddly this does not translate to a super thin case on the watch, most likely in order to retain the whopping 600 meter water resistance.
I’ve never been a huge fan of Zenith bracelets, the clasps have always felt a little tinny to me, especially in comparison to Omega and Rolex of equal price brackets – but this one is kind of growing on me with its fun jangly retro appeal.
So, is this watch for you? If you like super value, retro inspired, brightly colored watches – absolutely. If you have a small wrist and you love dive watches, it could be up your alley as well.
For more information on this watch visit the official Zenith website here.
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