Vitals:
Case Diameter: 45mm
Case Thickness: 17mm
Case Material: Stainless Steel
Dial: Black
Hands and Indexes: Rhodium with SuperLuminova SLN C1
Movement: El Primero 4047, 3650 Hr Power reserve
Features: Chronograph, Open heart dial, Big date, Sun and MoonPhase, Confusing seconds indicator.
http://i.imgur.com/RgklVSc.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/QAuFyAz.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/86EyeB2.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/SgMsVEB.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/zGrb4t8.jpg
At 45mmx17mm, this watch is proooobably too big for me
I actually swore never to get anything > 42mm again, but I fell in love with the combined feature set here. The case is a very familiar feel as I believe it is shared across all 45mm Zeniths (Class and Chronomaster). The Chronograph is identical to the other Zenith chronos I've tried, top knotch with the 36kvph movement. Start/Stop/Reset all have a solid and satisfying push. They went to a circular buzzer type button for the chrono operation this year instead of last year's oval shape.The dial itself got a bit busier with a circular metallic ring around the outside of the dial. For me this helps to offset the large dial, and makes it wear smaller. Last years model had a smaller dial set inside a 45mm case. Larger hands with lume and applied indexes with lume replace last year's pointed hands and applied roman numerals.
The big date looks good, although it is not as "crisp" and aligned as a GO. Possibly this can be tweaked at service, but it's not a big deal for me right now. The open heart showing the escapement is mesmerizing. I can look at it all day
One thing about the 45mm vs. the 42 mm models, the 45mm models are much thicker, and you can see this in the sides of the open heart. It's very obvious that the escapement is set very "deep" into dial on the 45mm models as you see a lot of "wall" along the open heart. on the 42mm models this is much less pronounced and looks a bit more natural.Finally, one of the biggest draws for me was the Sun and Moonphase indicator. In practicality, both indicators have little use. But damn it if they're not pretty
Zenith overlays a transparent disk with two metallic moons that rotates once per 59 days over a very intricately drawn sun phase disk that rotates once every 24 hours to achieve the sun+moonphase in one clean display. In all honesty, this sun/moon phase is the most detailed and picturesque that I've seen from any watch ( see the pictures above ). It has a rough painted look to it which for me, adds loads of class. Plus the display is larger than you would find typically for a sun/moonphase.Overall fit and finish is quite good, as befitting all Zenith watches. Date change is very crisp and aligned at midnight exactly. Each date change happens quickly. Moonphase advancement happens between midnight and about 3am, which is about typical.
The display back is standard El Primero fare, very good looking ( on par with some JLC I'd say ), but not up there with some display backs from GO and some of the more expensive brands.
I'm not exactly sure how to read the seconds on this watch. The seconds indicator at 9 o'clock occupies on of the holes of the open heart. The indicator itself is three handed and extends along a long stem from the movement at the bottom. There are some seconds hash marks along the right and bottom of the open dial, but no markings for the rest of it. The hands themselves look identical, so there's no real way to distinguish time from a seconds point of view. After some thought, this design works just fine. When setting the time, just align the minutes up to a time source and push in the crown at any arbitrary seconds position ( with one of the hands pointing up, for example ). The minutes will still sync fine, and if you need to measure anything in seconds scale, you can/should use the chronograph. It confused me quite a bit before I thought about it.
Anyways, hope this was useful. I can answer any questions anyone may have.
Thanks!
