Simply Abu Dhabi XXXV

1 1 6 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I M aybe the team at Zenith considered calling this remarkable achievement, the DEFY Re- Inventor. For that is effectively what they have accomplished here. Zenith has reinvented a crucial component of the mechanical movement. The traditional sprung balance was invented by Christiaan Huygens and has been used for over three hundred years, but within the DEFY Inventor is the disruptive “Zenith Oscillator” control system, first used in the revolutionary DEFY Lab in 2017. Zenith described that watch as, “the only mechanical watch embodying both an evolution and an improvement of the sprung balance principle presented in January 1675” and now we have the same system commercially available in the Inventor. The Zenith Oscillator was devised by Guy Sémon, General Director of TAG Heuer. Something of a mathematical mastermind, Sémon holds a PhD in and has taught analytic algebra and topology. He is also a former naval aviator, who flew the Dassault Super- Étendard before he turned his formidable intellect and ingenuity to the micro-mechanics of the watch industry. The DEY Inventor represents yet another astounding achievement by an independent manufacture that is able to develop and build a mechanical movement in its entirety, including its own regulating system. This major innovation offers a number of special benefits. Firstly, increased reliability, given that this unique ultra-thin element (0.5mm) replaces the thirty or so components of a standard regulating organ and thus eliminates contact, friction, wear and deformation; and secondly, stability, since it is made of monocrystalline silicon and therefore insensitive to temperature variations and magnetic fields. In addition, its escape- wheel is made of flexible blades, a first in the watch industry. These exceptional qualities are triple certified: for magnetic insensitivity, thermal insensitivity, and chronometric precision. Z e n i t h D E F Y I n v e n t o r