Looking just at the hands now, we can see that Zenith has color-coded the Chronomaster Sport’s functions. I would definitely have preferred a no-date option on these watches to clean up the dial even more, but the date complication is at least very discreet. The dial itself (as opposed to the bezel) is cleaner than most Chronomasters as there is no longer a tachymeter scale, which looks great, and Zenith took the time to color-match the date rings on both the black and white models.
#Zenith chronomaster sport black plus#
We also see minimal overlap of the subdials, another plus in my book. We’re greeted with the Tri-Color Dial, among my favorite design elements of all time. We don’t need another crazy Defy Xtreme the Chronomaster is sufficiently sporty that it doesn’t need an overhaul to gain a “sport” moniker.Ĭonsequently, most of the Chronomaster Sport is familiar. The visual distinction here is mainly limited to the bezel, but this is ultimately a good thing. Don’t get me wrong, of course, the Chronomaster Sport is clearly a sports watch, but so are almost all of the other Chronomasters. The size isn’t even extravagant at 41mm, a totally ordinary case size by modern standards (particularly with a large bezel making it wear a bit smaller than you’d expect), and you can get non-Sport Chronomasters larger than it. There’s no open heart dial available, for instance, and only the tip of the seconds hand is red compared to the entire hand. In some ways, weirdly, I think the Chronomaster Sport is actually more subtle than some existing Chronomasters. Setting aside the ceramic bezel, I’m left with another question about the Chronomaster Sport: wasn’t the Chronomaster already pretty sporty? It’s not as if the various long-running versions of the Chronomaster were discreet dress watches (that’s why we felt the need to do a new A273-inspired model to begin with), after all. This new model is designed to push forward into modernity. Those who want a Zenith of great provenance should go for the more conventional Chronomasters, or ideally, the A384. The Chronomaster Sport is intentionally a contemporary watch.
That said, I’m unclear as to why commentators are in such a hurry to find historical connections. The Stratos Striking 10th, by comparison, has the familiar Tri-Color dial but with the black bezel. The De Luca is far more utilitarian, and has a lot less El Primero design DNA. In my opinion, the Chronomaster Sport has much more in common with the relatively recent Stratos Flyback Striking 10th.
Personally, I don’t find this comparison particularly compelling. It’s worth pointing out, of course, that the bezel is not entirely novel for an El Primero you’d find something similar in the old, somewhat obscure, Zenith De Luca, a comparison that many reviewers, and even Zenith, are apt to make.
#Zenith chronomaster sport black full#
That’s because this chronograph, unlike almost all others in existence, has a chronograph seconds hand that makes a full rotation around the dial once every ten seconds. Instead of the ordinary, and borderline useless, tachymeter writing you traditionally find on chronographs, you find something far more interesting: a tenth of a second declaration, and, stranger still, a bezel that only counts up to 10, not 60.
That marks the beginning of a stylistic change, but the writing on the bezel is at least as profound. You don’t often see bezels this bold outside of divers, with, of course, some notable exceptions. We first spy the bezel itself, in a gleaming black ceramic that is quite provocative in its own right. There are a few elements that make the new Chronomaster Sport stand out against its dozens of brethren and predecessors, but surprisingly, none so highlight the difference as this simple photo of the bezel. Before I entertain the deeper questions about the Chronomaster Sport, we should first examine it in a vacuum, simply as a watch. The question I have to answer, then, is why this model has such a powerful resonance with fans and whether it even ought to be compared to the Daytona. And yet, despite what may be the birth of a new Zenith icon, the watch is also the subject of controversy, as many have rushed to compare it, sometimes favorably and sometimes not, to the Rolex Daytona. Yes, somehow surpassing watches like the White Birch Grand Seiko and an all-new Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch, we’ve received an incredible degree of interest of this model. The Zenith Chronomaster Sport has, quite unexpectedly (at least to me), become perhaps the most important new watch of 2021 thus far.
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