There are movements that transcend their mechanical function to become objects of remembrance. The Caliber 135 belongs to this category. Created in the mid-20th century for chronometry competitions, it remains today one of the most eloquent symbols of Zenith’s quest for precision.
The new G.F.J. Caliber 135 Double Signed with Naoya Hida & Co., however, does not seek to celebrate this history through nostalgia. Rather, it offers a dialogue between two visions of watchmaking—separated by several thousand kilometers but united by a shared commitment to detail.
The project marks the launch of Zenith’s “Double Signed” program, an initiative designed to invite independent watchmakers to reinterpret the G.F.J. collection, named in honor of Georges Favre-Jacot, the Manufacture’s founder. For this first edition, the choice fell on Naoya Hida, whose creations draw on the aesthetic codes of the 1930s through the 1960s while being crafted using contemporary technical methods.
The result is a 39-mm platinum timepiece produced in a limited edition of just ten pieces. But the appeal of this piece lies less in its rarity than in the attention paid to its surface. The solid silver dial is entirely hand-engraved by Master Engraver Keisuke Kano. The inscriptions are then filled with blue Urushi lacquer, a Japanese technique in which each layer is applied and polished by hand. This artisanal process transforms the dial into a meeting point between the Swiss tradition of precision timepieces and the Japanese decorative arts.
On the back, the Caliber 135 retains the features that have built its reputation. The hand-wound movement beats at 2.5 Hz and features a large variable-inertia balance wheel, a Breguet hairspring, and the double-arrow regulator developed by Charles Fleck. Its power reserve now reaches 72 hours, and its stated accuracy is plus or minus two seconds per day, validated by COSC certification.
Details
This cultural dialogue extends even to the straps included with the watch. The first is made of Himeji Kurozan leather, treated with successive layers of Urushi lacquer. The second is crafted from Wagyu leather by the artisans at Kyoto Leather. The third features non-stretch Japanese denim from Kaihara Denim, a manufacturer based in Fukuyama, in the Hiroshima region.
The most revealing quote in the report does not come from an executive but from Naoya Hida himself. He explains that the Caliber 135 has fascinated him since the 1990s and that his intention was to capture “the atmosphere and spirit of the Caliber 135 era” through a contemporary and deliberately understated approach.
That is likely where the appeal of this timepiece lies—not in the now-classic exercise of watchmaking collaboration, but in the demonstration that technical heritage is never static. The Caliber 135 was designed to measure time with greater precision. Seven decades later, it also serves to measure the distance traveled by the watchmaking industry itself: from a culture of chronometric competition to a global dialogue among artisans, workshops, and artistic sensibilities.
Cette publication est également disponible en :
