Zenith’s new Chronomaster Revival A384 Tropical is aptly named: it comes with an El Primero 40 calibre true to the watch design’s 1969 origins. But the most striking thing about the A384 is its dial: a distinctive, washed-out shade of brown, a PVD coating having been applied to make it look aged, or ‘tropical’.
That’s an effect more typically found on a vintage watch whose dial has been subject to intense heat and humidity over many years. It’s just one of the many fading effects – along with the likes of a ‘ghost' bezel, in which the numbers have disappeared over time – beloved by many vintage watch collectors and for which they will pay handsomely, if they can find it.
'And it’s very hard to find a tropical dial with a homogeneously even fade,' says Romain Marietta, chief product officer of Zenith, which has a second tropical dial model in the pipeline. 'Of all the tropical dials we’ve had in to sell through our vintage programme, we’ve only seen one like that. Is it pretending that the watch is aged? Sure. But it’s not cheating. It’s the flavour of a watch 50 years old without having to wait for it.'
Indeed, if the idea of treating a new dial to make it look old is not a new one - many watch brands have used a yellow/ivory lume paint, for example, this fading from the original white being another indicator of aging - Zenith too is not the only brand to push this more distinctive tropical effect. Panerai and Tudor, for example, the latter with the new Monarch, have opted for patinated-effect, sepia-tinged dials, while Movado has tropicalised the dial of its latest Field Watch. Nivada Grenchen, which first explored the idea with its Chronomaster, has applied it to its Super Antarctic model.
A tropical effect only works with a model that has a vintage aesthetic – it looks wrong on models that are too modern, argues Guillaume Laidet, chief brand officer for Nivada Grenchen, which introduced its tropical dials precisely to make the look more affordable relative to ‘the real thing’. 'It’s perhaps akin to the jeans market - some people want to buy new and wear them in over time, and others want to have the character that comes with fading and distressing from the start.'
Since even Nivada’s artificially aged dials have to go through a complex and secretive though imprecise method of chemical washes - 'in a machine something like a dishwasher,' says Laidet - even these offer what the naturally-aged ones do: uniqueness. 'You need a repeatable process to develop these dials but it’s one with a lot of wastage - which makes the resulting watches more expensive - and you still end up with each one being slightly different,' he says.
Indeed, while watches in the vintage market increasingly see faked tropical dials - such is the difference in price, around two to three times, that a tropical dial commands - some might balk at the idea of a new watch similarly being given a vintage effect in this way. Isn’t it a challenge to notions of authenticity?
But David Silver, owner of specialist Rolex dealer The Vintage Watch Company, argues that not only is the effect broadly appealing for its warmth and character, but that it will only further enhance the appeal of genuinely tropical pieces. 'There are many people who are into the effect on vintage watches and less into the price,' he says. 'It’s a certain customer that wants to pay for [an authentic] tropical dial - for its distinction, rarity and colour.'
There’s another reason why brands might be tempted to artificially ‘distress’ a dial for this aged effect. Genuine tropical dials are, Silver reckons, set to become increasingly rare over the longer term. Rolex, for example, will recommend a tropical dial be replaced if a watch is sent to it for servicing: it is, after all, a repairable ‘fault’ that has come about through wear and tear.
'And it’s only a matter of time before such signs of aging in a watch are probably lost,' Silver explains. 'You can be sure that in time a company the likes of Rolex - which hates the faded world, and for which it’s all about preserving or enhancing the functionality of the watch - will engineer out the patination process, by using materials that will better fix the colour. That will take the charm out of the aging process.'