Hands on with the Zenith Defy Extreme Diver – a stunning, stylish dive watch

Hands on with the Zenith Defy Extreme Diver – a stunning, stylish dive watch

If you’re in and around the world of the best watches, you’ll almost certainly be aware of the hottest trends on the market. Like all aspects of fashion, the industry is ever changing, with things that were hot a few years ago suddenly completely out of favour, and vice versa.

Recently, one unmissable trend has been for dive watches. Once the plaything of – yep, you guessed it – professional divers, these watches became renowned for their robust nature. Just look at the popularity of the Rolex Submariner, if you need any convincing.

At Watches and Wonders 2024, Zenith unveiled a host of new models. Sitting in among them was this – the Zenith Defy Extreme Diver.

Built to be a truly robust timepiece, this is a monster. A 42.5mm angular stainless steel case is certainly not for the faint of heart. It’s also on the chunky side, sitting quite proud from the wrist.

Fortunately, all of that is for good reason. This watch packs in a staggering 600m of water resistance. That’s a phenomenal measurement, which is far more than anyone reading this well ever need.

Inside, the classic El Primero movement is used. That’s slightly reworked here – there’s no chronograph on this model – but features the same 5Hz movement and power reserve of around 60 hours.

On the wrist, this is a really lovely feeling piece. There’s no getting around the size – it’s definitely one which is suited to larger wristed individuals – but if you can pull it off, you’re in for a real treat.

I tried it on all three different strap and bracelet options, and each definitely has its place. The rubber strap is quintessential, the NATO is a useful choice, but the titanium bracelet is my favourite of the three. It’s really nicely designed and feels perfectly premium.

At £10,200, this certainly isn’t a cheap timepiece. Still, it was never really intended to be. Put it up against the kind of models this should go toe-to-toe with and it actually represents some of the best value-for-money in the luxury dive watch market.