Back in the summer, Zenith announced the creation of its ‘Double Signed Program’ with the introduction of the G.F.J. Calibre 135 Double Signed with Naoya Hida. It came at a great time for the brand, earning them a lot of support among collectors at a time when Zenith is making some difficult financial decisions – recently announcing a proposal to downsize and cut almost half their staff, as well as reducing production in order to focus on high-end watchmaking. The “Double Signed Program” is the ideal vehicle to bring that high-end vision into reality. Now, we have the launch of the second watch in that series, the Zenith G.F.J. Calibre 135 Double Signed with J.N. Shapiro.
J.N. Shapiro is one of the leading American independent watchmakers, and he immediately brings his signature style to this collaborative watch by crafting the dial by hand in his Californian workshop. He uses traditional rose-engine and straight-line machines to apply three different styles of guilloché engraving to the silver dial. Those guilloché patterns include barleycorn around the peripheral edge, a basketweave motif in the centre and Shapiro’s signature infinity weave for the small seconds subdial.
Each section of guilloché is framed by a rose gold timing scale as well as matching gold plates inscribed with both brand names and the initials G.F.J., which stands for Georges Favre-Jacot, who was the founder of Zenith. The use of rose gold for those scales in addition to the hour, minute and seconds hands matche the 39.15mm x 10.5mm rose gold case. There is also a rose gold bracelet available upon request, but as standard the watch comes with three leather straps.
This is about as far as the Naoya Hida edition went, being a visual overhaul of the G.F.J. in the style of the independent brand. However, the J.N. Shapiro version goes further because he was allowed access to the movement itself, the titular Calibre 135. He finished the movement’s bridges with a technique called damaskeening, a combination of Côtes de Genève and guilloché. Historically it has been a popular technique among American watchmakers and so its use here is intentional to give the piece a distinct American style.
The calibre itself beats at a 2.5 Hz frequency with a large variable inertia balance wheel and Breguet overcoil. A modern re-engineering of a historic observatory movement with an improved 72-hour power reserve. It’s also COSC chronometer certified though it surpasses the minimum requirement of -4/+6 seconds per day to achieve +/-2 seconds per day, reducing the tolerance by six seconds.
For pricing and availability, the G.F.J. Calibre 135 Double Signed with J.N. Shapiro is limited to 25 pieces at CHF 68,900 (approx. £62,325). That’s an increase of CHF 10,000 compared to the Naoya Hida version despite the fact that the Hida version was presented in platinum instead of gold. That just goes to show how much value traditional crafts like hand-made guilloché and damaskeening can bring to a watch.
Price and Specs:
More details at Zenith.
