Zenith Mega Port Royal Tourbillon Watch

Say, why don't they have a jumbo sized square tourbillon watch with cage bars on the crystal? Oh, well Zenith does, and this odd homage to goth time-telling befuddles my sense of association. On the one hand, you have the underpinnings of a high-quality Zenith Port Royal watch. This handsome tank watch is a modern interpretation of the classic rectangular watch look. On the other hand... you have a black titanium cage.

Do you recall the 1980's when those rubber watch protectors were popular? You know, on Swatch watches and others. Yea, wasn't that cool? Little rubber straps that curled over the face of the watch (only partially obstructing the view) that came in tons of (neon) colors. I sure was styling back then, I even wore several of them on my wrist at once!

Well the point of protecting the crystal of watch apparently has been lost, until now, when Zenith reintroduced the cage look. So the perception of watch protection is back, and in a big (and ugly) way. Look at those ridiculous bars on the surface, surely nothing can harm the precious sapphire crystal now. It only takes about 5 times as long to figure out what time it is, and you get to look ridiculous angling your watch around read it with any precision.

Forget using the chronograph with the inhibited visibility that the cage provides. Or even really being able to view the tourbillon. The only purpose of the tourbillon is interesting to look at. Now, even that limited benefit of having a super expensive movement is degraded by security beams bolted to the front of the Zenith Mega Port Royal Tourbillon. Even the large amount of spacial real estate on 40x57mm case doesn't do too much to help with being able to see the hands underneath.

One has to ask the question, do these thick black bars really do anything beneficial for the Mega Port Royal watch. Is a large, square, modern looking chronograph with a tourbillon movement unappealing alone? Visually remove the bars over the watch and I think you will agree it is much nicer (and doesn't lose anything). Further, unless you are a hardcore goth dresser, with a lots of expendable cash, who is this watch supposed to appeal to? In other words, it looks cool for what it is, but what is it?

Other than this glaring oddity, the Zenith Mega Port Royal Tourbillon is admirable watch. An automatic movement with a 55 hour power reserve with a power reserve indicator, a chronograph measuring 1/10 of a second intervals, a bi-directional rotor, and black titanium case make for something impressive (but then again there is the cage). The good news is that this is not the only Zenith Port Royal watch out there. Other models lack the cage look (how sad right?) and present a much better watch that could actually be described as handsome. Lets just hope the cage look does not start to appear on other new watches.