The return of the dive watch to the Zenith collection has been one of the real highlights for the brand over the last year or so. It’s actually kind of crazy to consider that Zenith went so long without a true diver in their lineup, being that they’ve been one of the foundational pillars on which the whole industry saw so much growth over the last decade. It would be a little like an auto manufacturer refusing to build an SUV of some kind – why not get a piece of this segment of the market that an enormous number of people are interested in? It’s particularly noteworthy, I think, that when Zenith did decide to get back into the diver game, they did it on two fronts: with a tribute to their divers of the past, alongside a forward looking contemporary piece. Griffin Bartsch, across multiple reviews and videos, has done a nice job of breaking down both the Defy Extreme Diver and the Defy Revival Diver, watches that are very much two sides of the same coin. This week, Zenith expands their dive watch portfolio a bit further, iterating on both of these platforms via their “Shadow” series.
The Shadow watches have been enthusiast favorites since their inception. We’ve previously seen both a Chronomaster Revival Shadow as well as a Defy Revival Shadow, both of which strip down the essence of a watch into a chilly, micro-blasted titanium tool. The matte finish and darker tones of the cases are really appealing. They have a way of making a watch that is otherwise virtually a 1:1 recreation of something from the past into something that feels almost futuristic, like an ultra technical sci-fi version of the original watch.
What’s interesting about these Shadows is that they employ the same dark gray tones we’ve seen previously, but don’t shy away from color. True to the spirit of Zenith’s divers, they actually lean into color in an interesting way. While orange (and blue) dominated the divers introduced last year, here we get a bright tennis ball yellow accenting both the Defy Extreme Diver and the Defy Revival Diver.
The Defy Extreme Diver is, strangely, the more subtle of the two watches in my opinion. Zenith uses the “Extreme” designation for their most experimental, tech forward, and aesthetically adventurous watches within the Defy collection, and the new diver seen here is a fundamentally quieter and more subdued version of the watches introduced in 2024. The black dial has the same star pattern seen on previous versions, and the case remains 42.5mm and now features the aforementioned blasted finish on its titanium surface. The only blip of color comes via the minute track and hands, which are rendered in bright yellow.
The Defy Revival Diver in its Shadow form is perhaps a bit more interesting to me, as it fully recontextualizes the vintage watch it’s based on, as well as the recreation from a year ago. It’s a material change (steel to titanium) as well as being a dramatically different color. Just as the original featured an overwhelming amount of orange, this one is loaded with the same nearly fluorescent yellow, making it easily the loudest Shadow Zenith has released to date. These watches, in my view, are really meant to straddle the line between the past and some kind of imagined future, and that’s exactly what the Defy Revival Shadow appears to be doing, with its exact recreation of the classic reference A3648 case dimensions (it’s still 37mm in diameter) and vintage style bracelet combined with titanium and an avant-garde adjustment to the design language.
In terms of specs, these watches are right in line with those that came before. The most important number to be aware of here is the 600 meter water resistance rating that is common to both watches. That’s a figure that’s fairly mundane for a flagship modern dive watch like the Defy Extreme, but really stands out with the Revival. Extreme water resistance is part of that watch’s DNA, of course. The original A3648 had the same depth rating, and speaks to the impressive over engineering that has defined Zenith sports watches (particularly in the Defy collection) from the very beginning.
Both the Defy Extreme Diver Shadow and Defy Revival Shadow are available now. The retail price for the Extreme is $ 12,300, and the Revival is priced at $ 8,200. Zenith
