Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Fashion & Style
  3. News

Zenith gets in on America’s 250th birthday with Chronomaster Revival Liberty II

A trip to the US changed Zenith's manufacturing forever

Wristwatch, Arm, Body Part
Zenith

Zenith is a watch company built on stories and journeys. A couple of years ago, I got to sit down with a C-suite exec and listened to the story of the origins of the name; a tale of the founder summiting a mountain and staring at the stars, feeling as though he experienced the Zenith of his journey, which sparked the name that stuck on one of the top Swiss watchmakers in the industry. Now, Zenith is celebrating another journey with the release of the Chronomaster Revival Liberty II. The two limited editions are launching to celebrate the United States’ 250th anniversary.

A limited edition fit for celebration

The journey this watch celebrates calls back to a trip across the Atlantic by Georges Favre-Jacot, where he discovered the efficiency of the American Industrial Revolution. Before discovering the country’s modernity in the manufacturing process, all of the watch parts were developed separately and assembled later. Favre-Jacot took the inspiration back to Zenith and developed the first fully integrated Swiss watch Manufacture.

Recommended Videos

The launch features two editions. A stainless steel edition limited to 250 units and an even more limited forged carbon edition with only 25 units. These watches are a reimagining of 1969’s reference A384. They feature a white-lacquered dial with blue counters and a striped chronograph hand calling to the thirteen stripes on the American flag. There are subtle color callbacks to the red, white, and blue inspirations and a El Primero 400 movement to keep them on time for the next 250 years of American inspiration.

Mark D McKee
Mark cut his teeth in the men's style world when he sold suits first at box stores such as Men's Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank…
Topics
Breitling’s new Top Time is a wearable tribute to the Aston Martin DB5
The new watches rep the iconic Bond car right down to subdials shaped like its dashboard gauges.
Car, Watch, Man

Breitling just released a trio of heaters: the Top Time B01 Chronograph 41 Tribute to Aston Martin DB5, a three-edition collaboration with the British carmaker. The connection between the Swiss watchmaker and the British car company runs back to 1965, when a Top Time ref. 2002 appeared on Sean Connery's wrist in Thunderball, worn alongside the DB5 — the first Q-modified watch in the Bond series. It's a nice bit of trivia that the DB5 and that Top Time shared the screen in the same film, and both went on to outlive the movie by decades.

The car cues go deeper than the "squircle" gauge-shaped subdials: a wooden inner ring nods to the DB5's steering wheel, and each edition rides on a hand-colored gradient calfskin strap meant to read like automotive upholstery. All three run on Breitling's in-house Manufacture Caliber 01, a COSC-certified automatic chronograph with a 70-hour power reserve, visible through a sapphire caseback and finished with an Aston Martin-engraved rotor. The case measures 41mm. The editions are divvied up by material and rarity. Stainless steel with a silver dial is limited to 1,022 pieces and sticks closest to the original ref. 2002, while steel with a platinum bezel and black lacquered dial drops to 315 pieces.

Read more
Look to the sky for these space themed watches
These 5 space themed watches will have you seeing stars
Accessories, Strap, Wristwatch

It was the 1960s. We were in the middle of a Cold War with Russia, and instead of escalating to an actual war with bullets and bombs, we took the conflict to the sky. We created a war of economics, science, and morale in a race to the sky to be the first nation to reach the moon. While the race picked up throughout the decade, it came down to the wire before the USA won the race by landing on the moon (if you believe that sort of thing and don't believe Stanley Kubrick directed the greatest ruse of all time). In any case, no race can be run without a good timekeeper. And watches were a must-have for all involved. Ever since, chronophiles like me have been obsessed with space-themed watches and, in particular, moon mission watches.

That is why I happened to have this list in my head. Five watches that bring the space race and the great beyond to the forefront of thinking to build a collection that is out of this world.

Read more
Legendary designer has a project coming up you may not know about
Legendary designer, Tom Ford, is writing and directing a film adapting the Anne Rice novel, Cry to Heaven
Accessories, Formal Wear, Tie

Tom Ford is a name that every fashionisto knows well. He is the top of the top when you talk about famous suit makers. He began his career changing the landscape of multiple brands, including Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, before launching his own self-named brand of his own in 2005. The brand has remained a mainstay in the industry for the last 20 years, including the acquisition of Estée Lauder in 2022 for an estimated $2.8 billion. For the movie buffs in the room, you also likely know about Tom Ford because he became the exclusive tailor and suitmaker for Daniel Craig's James Bond for Quantum of Solace in 2008. He carried that gig all the way through the series and defined men's style for two decades.

Now, for the real cinephiles in the room, you may also know that Tom Ford himself is a movie buff and entered the industry as a writer and a director in 2009 by directing A Single Man with Colin Firth and Julianne Moore. Then again in 2016 with Nocturnal Animals with Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Michael Shannon. Of course, the wardrobe was stellar in both, and we will get a chance to see his talents onscreen again this fall with a new Anne Rice adaptation, Cry to Heaven.

Read more