Zenith’s Fake Watches New Pilot Collection

Zenith’s Pilot collection was revived at Watches & Wonders this year. Like an airplane returning to its proper course after a long circling, the Pilot Collection has been completely transformed into the arms of Manufacture replica Zenith. Since the launch of several Pilot Type 20 products in 2019, this is the first new Pilot product in almost four years, and the overall appearance, including the case and dial, has been completely changed, making this renewal even more visible and arousing curiosity. Let’s take a look at the evolution of Zenith’s most historic wristwatch collection.

In the history of aviation watches spanning over 100 years, Zenith’s position remains strong. The brand’s founder, Georges Favre-Jacot, applied for a trademark for ‘Pilote’, which means pilot in French, in 1888, and later acquired the trademark for the English version of ‘Pilot’ in 1904. Registration has been completed. At a time when the expression or concept of aviation watches had not even been established, he predicted the future development of aviation fake watches with his unique pioneering ideas. This makes Zenith, to this day, the only watch brand that can engrave the phrase ‘Pilot’ on its dial.
When talking about airlines, the extraordinary efforts of some pioneering pilots are always mentioned. The American Wright Brothers, who built the world’s first powered airplane and succeeded in flight in 1903, as well as the Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont, who succeeded in powered flight for a distance of about 60 meters for the first time in Europe, and in 1909. Legendary figures include Louis Blériot, who was the first person to cross the English Channel from France, driving the Blériot XI monoplane he invented. Among them, Santos-Dumont and Blériot have unintentional ties to watch manufacturers. Santos-Dumont became an immortal name in the field with his watch of the same name produced by Cartier, while Blériot became another star by completing a historic flight wearing what was almost the first wristwatch ever made for aviation by Zenith. This has been done. Afterwards, Louis Blériot placed full trust in Zenith’s Pilot’s Timepiece, to the point where he left a handwritten praise saying, “It is the most suitable watch for aviation, and I am extremely satisfied with its accuracy,” which later led to Zenith’s exclusive use of pilot timepieces. It became the foundation for the fascinating storytelling that led me to decide to develop it into a collection.
Although it is almost the first pilot’s wristwatch produced by Zenith, it boasts a design that is surprisingly close to the archetype of a modern pilot’s watch. A smooth circular steel case, a coin-edge bezel that can rotate in both directions, an onion-shaped crown designed to make it easy for pilots to wind the mainspring and adjust the time even while wearing aviation gloves, and oversized Arabic numeral indexes that ensure the best readability. Even the shape of the cathedral hands, which originated from the windows of the cathedral, was a combination of combinations that were difficult to see in watch design at the time of 1909. In addition, it was also modern in that the center of the hands was filled with radium-based luminous paint so that the time could be checked even during night flights.

In addition to its relationship with Louis Blériot, Zenith has a wealth of know-how in producing marine chronometers and chronometer pocket watches that commanded the Neuchâtel Observatory from the late 19th century, when the manufacture was founded, and has been used to create aircraft cockpit dashboards in the 1930s and 1940s. The clock, also known as Type 20, was supplied to the French Air Force and various aviation test institutes, gaining a strong reputation. At the time, Zenith’s dashboard clock was so widely popular that it came to be called Montre d’Aéronef, which means ‘aviation clock’ in French, and the brand also launched the Pilot Collection in 2012 to commemorate this in a meaningful way. The names are listed side by side. The Pilot Montre Daeronev Type 20 series, which continued for several years, was a huge success, and along with El Primero, another Zenith signature, it established itself as a two-horse carriage that largely divided the collection.
However, since the appointment of current CEO Julien Tornare in 2017, Zenith’s collections began to undergo dramatic changes, and starting in 2019, the 50th anniversary of El Primero, the El Primero (now Chronomaster) collection As I focused on and poured a lot of passion into the Defy collection over the past three years, I naturally felt like the Pilot collection was pushed to the back burner. However, this year’s large-scale re-launch of the Pilot collection revealed that it was also part of the bigger picture drawn by Zenith’s head, Julien Tonare. The new Pilot collection for 2023 is divided into the basic Pilot Automatic with a three-hand date function and the Pilot Big Date Flyback equipped with a chronograph movement with big date and flyback functions. Presenting it in two types of cases, stainless steel and black ceramic, is also a step that differentiates it from the previous generation Pilot collection.
This is a basic model equivalent to entry. Compared to the previous generation Pilot Type 20, which emphasized straight horn-shaped lugs, the case design has changed dramatically. The tonneau-type body, which reveals a soft silhouette, the round bezel, and above all, the lug design, have been refined to a more general form. There is a big difference from the original Zenith wristwatch that Louis Blériot actually wore in 1909, but unlike in the past when soldered lugs had to be adopted for various reasons, there is no reason to insist on this form in modern times, so it is a bold watch. It’s like giving up. Additionally, since it is also presented in a black ceramic case based on zirconium oxide powder, it would have been a reasonable choice to produce the middle case, including the lugs, in a monoblock form.