From new G.F.J. editions powered by the reborn Calibre 135 to a more expansive Chronomaster Sport line-up, Zenith’s latest releases are less about spectacle than sharpening the brand’s core strengths.
Zenith arrived at Watches and Wonders 2026 with a clear sense of what it does best, focusing on the El Primero and the precision chronometry that continues to define its place in modern watchmaking. That approach gave Zenith’s latest presentation a clear sense of direction. On one side was the Chronomaster Sport, still the brand’s most commercially legible expression of the El Primero story, now expanded through a skeletonised execution and a new two-tone edition. On the other was the G.F.J., the young but already credible collection built around the reborn Calibre 135, which returns this year in two distinct forms: one in yellow gold with a bloodstone dial, the other in tantalum and limited to just 20 pieces.
Together, the releases made a strong case for where Zenith sits right now. This is not a brand chasing novelty for novelty’s sake. It is increasingly interested in refining its own language, tightening its product families and reminding people that few maisons can speak with equal legitimacy about both high-frequency chronographs and observatory-grade chronometry.
The broadest update comes via the Chronomaster Sport Skeleton, which brings the El Primero 3600 into full view. Zenith has played with openworked dials before, but here the move feels especially logical. The Chronomaster Sport has always relied on the technical credibility of the El Primero, and this version makes that argument visually explicit. The sapphire dial, tinted from black at the edge to transparent at the centre, reveals the movement’s architecture without turning the watch into something overly theatrical. The familiar tri-colour counters remain in place, preserving a direct link to the 1969 original, while the 1/10th-of-a-second display still does the heavy lifting in practical terms.
Inside is the El Primero 3600SK, running at 5Hz, or 36,000 vibrations per hour, with a 60-hour power reserve. As with the standard Chronomaster Sport, the central chronograph hand makes one full rotation every 10 seconds, allowing elapsed tenths of a second to be read directly off the bezel. That remains one of the clearest and most persuasive demonstrations of Zenith’s high-frequency identity. Plenty of brands can talk about heritage. Fewer still have a technical signature that remains this easy to understand on the wrist.
Zenith is also using the new Skeleton as the launch platform for a patented folding clasp called ZENCLASP, initially introduced on the stainless-steel models. In truth, clasp innovation is rarely the most exciting part of a fair presentation, but it matters more than brands sometimes admit. A good bracelet can make a watch; a bad clasp can quietly ruin one. Zenith’s new system includes a safety lock and a micro-adjustment mechanism that can be operated on the wrist without tools, with 10mm of total adjustment in 2.5mm increments. It is a practical development rather than a flashy one, but that is precisely why it lands.
The Chronomaster Sport Skeleton arrives in four versions: two in steel, one with a black ceramic bezel and signature tri-colour counters, the other with a green ceramic bezel; one in rose gold with a black ceramic bezel on a rubber strap; and a 10-piece rose-gold edition with a gold bracelet and baguette-cut diamond bezel. The range is clearly designed to broaden the Chronomaster Sport offer without diluting it. Zenith is giving one of its strongest contemporary products more room to grow.
A more restrained addition to the family comes in the form of a two-tone Chronomaster Sport in steel and rose gold. Limited to 50 pieces, it pairs a 41mm case with a mother-of-pearl dial and the usual tri-colour registers, while the bezel, crown and pushers are executed in rose gold. Two-tone can easily tip into nostalgia or excess, but Zenith has handled it with relative discipline here. The result feels less like a retro gesture and more like an attempt to dress the Chronomaster Sport in a slightly more versatile register. It still runs on the El Primero 3600, still measures 1/10ths of a second, and still keeps the core mechanics intact. The difference is tonal. It softens the watch without changing its identity.
If the Chronomaster releases are about reinforcing Zenith’s best-known modern platform, the G.F.J. pieces are about deepening a newer one. The collection, named after founder Georges Favre-Jacot, made a strong impression when it launched with the revived Calibre 135 and went on to win the Chronometry Prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in 2025. That gave Zenith something valuable: proof that the G.F.J. was not simply an anniversary exercise, but a watch with enough seriousness to stand on its own.
This year’s headline addition is a limited edition of 161 pieces in yellow gold with a bloodstone dial. It is a handsome, slightly unusual watch, and one that feels more confident than decorative. The case measures 39.15mm and stays faithful to the elegant proportions of mid-century chronometers, while the dial is divided into three parts: a bloodstone centre, an oversized mother-of-pearl small-seconds register at six o’clock, and a guilloché outer ring inspired by the brick façade of Zenith’s manufacture in Le Locle. The material mix could easily have become too busy, yet it works because the underlying layout remains so controlled.
More importantly, the watch keeps the focus on the movement. The manually wound Calibre 135, originally created for observatory competitions, remains one of the most significant names in Zenith’s back catalogue. In its modern form, it retains the original 13-ligne diameter and 18,000 vph frequency, while adding practical improvements including a 72-hour power reserve, a stop-seconds mechanism and COSC certification. Zenith says each movement is regulated to within plus or minus two seconds per day. For a brand that has long traded on its chronometric credibility, that level of discipline matters.
The more exclusive G.F.J. release comes in tantalum, a metal better known for its machining difficulty than its mainstream appeal. That is partly the point. Zenith is clearly using the material to underline the seriousness of the watch rather than to turn it into a gimmick. Limited to 20 pieces, the tantalum edition pairs its blue-grey case with a black onyx dial centre, a grey mother-of-pearl small-seconds register and baguette-cut diamond hour markers. It is more formal, more severe and, in its own way, more niche than the yellow-gold version. Yet it also feels like a natural extension of the G.F.J. idea: precise watchmaking presented in a form that asks for close attention rather than instant recognition.
What made Zenith’s Watches and Wonders 2026 line-up convincing, then, was not just the individual merits of each watch. It was the coherence of the whole. The Chronomaster Sport continues to evolve as the brand’s modern El Primero showcase, while the G.F.J. is becoming a proper home for Zenith’s chronometry story beyond the usual heritage talking points. One line looks outward, with stronger day-to-day appeal and wider reach. The other looks inward, drawing from the brand’s deepest technical history. Both feel credible.
That balance is not easy to strike, especially at a fair where brands often end up saying too much and showing too little. Zenith, by contrast, kept the message fairly simple. It has one of the great chronograph movements in Swiss watchmaking, one of the great observatory calibres in its archive, and enough confidence now to build a future around both.
