We’ve said it a bunch of times as Zenith has released a flurry of heritage inspired releases over the last few years, but few brands do a better job of picking their spots when it comes to staying true to the past and taking future focused design risks. Credit should be given to Zenith here for sticking with dimensions that are true to the original versions of A384 derived watches. Still, comfort wins the day, and besides being lightweight the case is well balanced visually and quite thin in practice, giving it what I guess you can call the Ned Flanders effect. It feels especially diminutive compared to the chunky sports watches I was favoring toward the tail end of summer, and cuts a profile across the wrist that feels more like a dress watch, for me, than a sports chronograph. I like these contrasts, and enjoy that what, on the surface, is a simple “black” watch, is actually quite a bit more complex.Īt 37mm, the angular, tonneau shaped case is right on the borderline of being too small for my 7.5 inch wrist.
This color is matched by the chronograph sub registers and the outer tachymeter scale, while the dial interior is a darker shade, approaching true black, but still not quite getting there. As is quite clear in these photos, the tone of the case is really more of a grayish brown. Again, that may or may not be appealing (you could hardly be blamed for wanting a watch to feel “finished” before handing over your hard earned $9,000 that Zenith is asking), but I found something charming about it.īut what’s really interesting about the case is that the color isn’t really “black” at all. In more ways than one, the Shadow feels like the first draft of something. The micro blasted titanium has an even, matte finish all over, which to me conjures the idea of a prototype that’s not quite finished or ready for public consumption, much like the watch the Shadow is based on. If that’s important to you, the Shadow should quickly be eliminated from consideration.īut if the light weight is appealing, the Shadow is a rewarding watch to wear, despite some flaws that we’ll get to in a moment. Some of us, myself included, like a little heft in our watches, at least in our sports watches. This may or may not be a desirable quality. That material is a key part of the experience of wearing the Shadow, because it makes an already easy to wear case virtually disappear into nothingness on the wrist. But this one, unlike the A385 Blake reviewed awhile back that uses the same case design (I know, confusing), is crafted from micro blasted titanium and is not coated in any way. Based on a virtually unseen prototype that Zenith built in the 70s, the Shadow uses the truly excellent A384 case as its starting point. This is a watch that’s been on my radar for quite some time, and while I’ve had the chance to try it on at watch meetups, getting the chance to live with it for an extended period of time is obviously an entirely different thing. As is often the case, I was pretty much wrong about everything. Let’s put a pin in that assumption, because we’ll return to it later. But in my deliberation about which watch to sell to fund the next thing, I distinctly remember thinking I’d unload the Defy because it was just too niche, and opportunities to wear a black cased watch on a rubber strap might not present themselves as often as I’d thought. I ultimately sold that watch not because it no longer worked for me (I have nothing but good things to say about it) but because financial realities dictate that I, unfortunately, can’t keep them all. At the time I picked up that watch, I was looking for something unapologetically modern in its aesthetic, and the black ceramic case and skeletonized dial did the trick. Faithful readers may remember my review of another Zenith, the Defy Classic, back in 2020. The first time I plunked down serious money for a black watch, it didn’t stick. They always seemed more fun, and youthful. But of course even in that early stage before I fully understood what it was that I was looking at, I was drawn to the sleekness of a black watch. They were different enough that it fascinated me to think about the thought process of someone who would choose a black coated watch over something more standard, and seemingly more versatile. Before I was in any way a watch enthusiast, my eye would dart to blacked out watches in the Macy’s jewelry cases, and I’d always notice them when I saw them being worn out in public. On a certain level I’ve always found black watches appealing.
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