If you weren’t living under a rock, I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of a guy name Felix Baumgartner; the Austrian BASE jumper who went up in a hot air balloon to the height of 128,000 feet into the stratosphere and then jump down to earth. The event was sponsored by Red Bull and Mr. Baumgartner was wearing a Zenith watch.
Zenith is paying tribute to the event with a limited edition watch, limited to only 10 pieces. The watch is called Zenith Academy Christophe Colomb Tribute to Felix Baumgartner. This is a new take on the Christophe Colomb watches, which we’ve written about in the past, click here.
The Felix Baumgartner Christophe Colomb watches come in all black cases with black crocodile leather straps, the cases are DLC coated platinum and measure 45 mm wide and 21.4 mm thick. The dials depict the moment Felix jumped out of the capsule, with an engraved image of Felix looking down at Earth, which is finished in blue, and the background is black with white dots representing stars in space.
The main dial has a subdial at the 12 o’clock position for the hours and minutes, and a small-second dial at 9 o’clock. Behind Felix’s engraving is a power reserve indicator at 3 o’clock and a Gravity Control self-regulating module at 6 o’clock. The watch is covered with domed AR coated sapphire crystal.
The Gravity Control module is a gyroscope which maintains the escapement to remain horizontal no matter what position the watch is in, which minimizes gravity’s effects on the mechanics of the watch, making it more accurate.
The watch is powered by an in-house Zenith Caliber El Primero 8804 hand-wound mechanical movement, beating at 36,000 vph, and has a 50 hour power reserve. These watches are water resistant to 30 meters. The caseback is engraved with a scene of Felix free-falling down to Earth. The outer edges of the casebacks show vital statistics from the jump, such as the height and speed of the jumper.
The Zenith Academy Christophe Colomb Tribute to Felix Baumgartner watches are priced at $275,000 each, limited to 10 pieces. Via: Zenith
