Thierry Nataf, the man Zenith classicists love to hate, who led the manufacture into the abyss has returned, being appointed to CEO of Slyde. https://www.slyde.ch/en/index.php Discuss, if you can bring yourself to...
Richard Mille meets Uwerks with a pinch of Aximum! Boy, when your name is used as a verb you know you either screwed up royally or have made it. I think we all know what category this falls into.
At least Nataf has yet to claim he is the "son of Time." It's not you. It's Nataf. That's his genius.
CEO of Zenith 2002-2009. Repositioned a storied and honored watch manufacture for the ultraluxury market, producing huge, bizarre watches that were all but unusable as watches because design overwhelmed readability, and pricing them stratospherically. The crash of 2008 more or less eliminated the clientele for these watches (if one ever existed) and Zenith nearly collapsed. As a result, he is not hugely popular with the hidebound, unimaginative vintage crowd. some examples http://www.amazon.com/Zenith-Xtreme-Tourbillon-Automatic-96-0528-4035-21-M528/dp/B008B9JWK6/ref=sr_1_5?s=watches&ie=UTF8&qid=1355959202&sr=1-5&keywords=zenith watch http://www.amazon.com/Zenith-Xtreme-Grande-Date-Stealth-95-0527-4039-01-M530/dp/B001LYBXSM/ref=sr_1_33?s=watches&ie=UTF8&qid=1355959214&sr=1-33&keywords=zenith watch http://www.amazon.com/Zenith-03-0526-4037-21-R642-Multicity-Timezone/dp/B0036F0QH8/ref=sr_1_95?s=watches&ie=UTF8&qid=1355959246&sr=1-95&keywords=zenith watch If you look closely at the picture in the lead post, you can see some of his creations on the wrist. They are the things that look like house-arrest bracelets. in fairness, the man did produce my favorite modern Zenith, but it was a heritage edition.
He didn't produce it, he just ran out of avante garde designs and had to take advice from sensible employees who noticed brands like Longines who were making a mint on reissues of classic products. BTW, I love the reviews in the Amazon links.
You might be right. It was not a slavish reissue, though. He actually upsized the case, which was not so easy to upsize intelligently being atypical to begin with, which did interesting things to the watch. It's substantially larger than the vintage, and manages to look quite cutting edge - sort of like what I imagine Hublot could have looked like if you took out the ridiculous. here it is among the A 3817 and the A 386 for a size comparison. Anyway, Dufour killed the series, which was just getting interesting after two years, so I am giving the credit to Nataf.
Love the photo at the top of Nataf at the Jersey Shore! Now as for watch that opens the Slyde website, you know you have design problems when you have to include little signs that tell you where to look for the hours, for the minutes and for the seconds. I guess it avoids confusion: "Oh no I'm late, it's 56 o'clock…uh…no, wait…".
I see Nataf's reign as a glass half full. If he had been successful, Zenith prices will and should be higher than what it is now. But because of his relative incompetence, it is now still a brand whose watches are relatively more affordable than other brands. Which I am not not complaining.
