The very first good news of a more synergized approach to watchmaking at LVMH comes to light this week, with the unveiling of Zenith’s Defy Lab, a collaboration between the highly-decorated Le Locle manufacture, the R&D department of replica Hublot, and Guy Semon, CEO of the luxury group’s R&D Institute, Watch Division, based at TAG Heuer replicas. 
And the results are even more outstanding than the fake Zenith’s landmark achievement to a certain extent, the legendary El Primero from 1969, the first serially produced chronograph capable of measuring to 1/10th of a second, made possible by the higher oscillating frequency. Because today the fake Zenith has announced a new movement beating at an incredible 15hz or ten times more accurately than the original El Primero.
Featured inside an upgraded movement called the ZO 342 is an entirely new regulating system dubbed the fake Zenith Oscillator, which replaces the coupled balance and hairspring (“sprung balance”) system devised by the astronomer and physicist Christiaan Huygens back in 1675 with a single element measuring just 0.5mm thick.
The Oscillator itself is made from monocrystalline silicon and its two components replace the 30 or so parts that comprise the traditional sprung balance system. The usage of monocrystalline silicon obviates the need for lubrication, resulting in less friction, which – in tandem with the increased frequency – achieves far greater accuracy for 95 percent of its 60-hour power reserve (which is ten percent greater than the original El Primero, despite the uplift in frequency).
This gives the Defy Lab a triple-whammy of credentials: chronometer certification awarded on behalf of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), as well as thermal and anti-magnetic properties that meet criteria laid down by the International Organization for Standards (ISO). As the replica Zenith describes it, “This mechanism opens up a new dimension, representing no less than a reinvention of the Huygens principle with another mechanical replica watch.”
Initially offered in ten unique pieces (all of which are pre-sold), the fake Zenith Defy Lab features a 44mm case made from a patent-pending aluminum composite developed by the R&D team at Hublot, called Aerosmith, which is billed as 1.7 times lighter than aluminum and 10% lighter than carbon fiber. Finally, the aim is to industrialize the Zenith Oscillator as the El Primero, but until then there’s the Defy El Primero 21, a chronograph capable of measuring to 100th of a second via a central seconds hand the first series-made chronograph able to do so, and the debut piece in this newly-minted line of Defy replica watches.