![]() ![]() ![]() Gone are the oversized cases, the cathedral hands, the massive onion-style crowns, the Gothic numerals and straight lugs that were hallmark Pilot Type 20 features, all tossed overboard in favour of a far more contemporary design language. Cairelli Tipo CP-2 flyback chronograph modelled on a 1960s pilot watch supplied to the Italian army revisited by the brand in 2016. While the watch that best captured the spirit of Zenith’s early flight companions was incarnated by the massive, hyper-vintage Montre d’Aéronef Type 20 or Pilot Type 20, and all its derivations, there were admittedly other pilot watches with slightly less overt vintage traits in the collection, like the A. The English term was trademarked in 1904, and Zenith is still the only brand that can use the word Pilot on a watch dial. Without recounting Zenith’s long and successful role as a producer of pilot watches and dashboard instruments (montre d’aéronef) for military and civilian pilots (you can read all about this exciting alliance here), suffice it to say that Zenith’s founder Georges-Favre Jacot had a gut feeling about the advent of aviation and filed a trademark for the term ‘Pilote’ in 1888, five years before the Wright brothers made the first sustained flight in 1903. Let’s take a closer look at the Big Date Pilot Flyback in steel equipped with a new version of the brand’s legendary El Primero calibre. Zenith is putting all its pilot eggs in one basket, confident that the contemporary looks and powerful El Primero movement will keep its new Pilot airborne. Comprised of a 40mm time-and-date and a larger 42.5mm Big Date Pilot Flyback, both available in matte black ceramic or steel, the look of the new collection is modern and, for many, welcomed as a breath of fresh air. As a brand with legitimate pilot watch credentials, dating to Louis Blériot’s successful cross-Channel flight in a monoplane in 1909 with a ‘Special’ Zenith wristwatch strapped to his wrist, the brand’s decision to jettison the vintage personality that had defined the Montre d’Aéronef Type 20 collection since its reappearance in 2012 was daring. During Watches & Wonders 2023, Zenith unveiled an entirely new Pilot collection that radically changed the flight path of this storied collection.
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