Zenith Chronomaster Revival Safari

In a year where green dials have become a major fad, Zenith is keeping up with the Zenith Chronomaster Revival Safari , a chronograph “inspired by the great outdoors” according to the brand.

Pairing a matte khaki-green dial with faux-aged “lume” and an El Primero A384 in blasted titanium, the Zenith Chronomaster Revival Safari is one of the more unusual El Primero remakes to date, despite its fashionable colour.
If the Chronomaster Revival Safari looks familiar, that’s because it’s essentially the Chronomaster Revival Shadow in green. The Shadow was one of my favourite recent watches from Zenith, so that’s a good thing.

In fact, the microblasted titanium case suits the safari theme better than the monochromatic Shadow. Lightweight and non-reflective, titanium makes sense for a watch that’s meant to be for the great outdoors.
However, “faux-patina” on the hands and indices is a tad affected, especially considering the Safari is not a vintage remake, but rather a modern design conceived to capitalise on green dials being in vogue.

With a price tag of US$9,000, the new Zenith Chronomaster Revival Safari costs about 10% more than the Shadow and the A385 on a bracelet, making it less of a value proposition compared to the rest of the Revival lineup. Nevertheless, it’s still a fair buy relative to the rest of the market. And given the current popularity of green-dial watches, the Safari will prove to be a commercial success.
The green dial has a matte, granular texture that reinforces the safari-themed livery. Unlike the Shadow, the Safari is more functional, having a seconds track on the outer perimeter of the dial, which means that it’s capable of recording elapsed time.

And it also has the date found on the standard A384. While I’m usually not a fan of date windows, the date here is discreet with a green wheel that blends into the dial.
Beating inside is the El Primero 400, a gently upgraded version of the original launched in 1969. Like the original, the El Primero 400 beats at a high frequency of 36,000 beats per hour, and is equipped with both a column wheel and a lateral clutch.

Zenith has given its 1960s A384 a wilderness-inspired makeover, creating the Chronomaster Revival Safari.

Zenith’s design team has sought to bring the colors and textures of the great outdoors to the A384’s silhouette with a 37mm microblasted tourneau-shaped titanium case and green dial, which is by far the hottest color in watchmaking this year.

The softened, matte finish and gunmetal shade of microblasted titanium transforms the look of a case which is more normally presented in polished and brushed stainless steel.

The Zenith Chronomaster Revival Safari forest green dial is paired with a color-matched date wheel with white numerals and a window at the half-past-four position to minimize its impact, while black chronograph sub dials offer legibility without too much in the way of contrast. Applied rhodium-plated hour markers and hands are infilled with a beige “fauxtina” Super-LumiNova.

The watch head, which is water resistant to 50m, is secured on a rubber and corder-effect strap in a matching green shade and fastened with a pin buckle in matching microblasted titanium. Inside is a high-beat 5Hz El Primero 400 Automatic column wheel chronograph movement with 50 hours power reserve.