Watches & Wonders: Hands-On Impressions of Two New Zenith G.F.J. Novelties

Watches & Wonders: Hands-On Impressions of Two New Zenith G.F.J. Novelties

Why is it that there are some watches we just kind of forget about? I think we’ve all experienced this right? We encounter a watch that really works, feels special, rave about to other collectors and, if you’re able, maybe even think about how you might acquire one (side note: that is definitely not the situation I find myself in with respect to the watches we’ll be discussing here). 

For whatever reason, the Zenith G.F.J. found itself in that category for me. Last year, when I saw the first G.F.J., I think I probably verbalized to someone that it was the best thing I saw at Watches & Wonders 2025. I thought about it for weeks. I considered how it felt so much more handmade and specialized than any of the other new Zenith watches I’ve seen, which were mostly reminders that Zenith is a huge brand that needs to cast a wide net. And that’s the case again this year. The headline release for the brand this year is a new series of Chronomaster Sport references with skeleton dials. They are very nice watches, but tread familiar ground. We’ve seen countless iterations of the Chronomaster Sport at this point, and transitioning to skeleton dials after a period of time is part of the Zenith playbook. 

The G.F.J. collection, by contrast, feels unpredictable and outside the bounds of the usual Zenith strategy. These are high end watches that take advantage of exotic materials and precious metals, and have more in common with many haute horlogerie indies, at least on the surface, than their companions in the broader Zenith catalog. That might, paradoxically, be why last year’s G.F.J. didn’t linger for me the way I might have expected it to in the weeks following its unveiling. It’s so out of step with what Zenith is doing elsewhere, it’s just not what we’re trained to think about when we consider the brand. 

This year’s pair of G.F.J. releases should change that somewhat, as they continue to teach collectors and enthusiasts how Zenith should be understood. We have two new versions of the G.F.J, one in gold and the other in tantalum. The tantalum piece features a dial made from black onyx, with baguette cut diamond indices. The yellow gold watch, named “Bloodstone” for its distinctive jasper “bloodstone” dial, is my personal favorite and is complemented by a mother of pearl small seconds scale and subtle guilloche. You can also have the yellow gold watch on a matching yellow gold bracelet, similar to the full platinum bracelet we saw paired as an option with last year’s G.F.J. 

I found both of these watches to be incredibly beautiful, and while some in the watch community are no doubt tired of stone dials being featured in novelties like this at such a high rate, the G.F.J. is executed at such a high level, I think it deserves a pass from those who are ready for this trend to die out completely. The use of stone here is integral to the design of the watch, and not just plugged in as an afterthought. That should really be the test, right? If a stone dial could conceivably be a dial made from any other material or in any other way, it probably should have just been left alone. But all three G.F.J. watches, now that we can see them together, feel built around these stones. They all have distinct personalities that they wouldn’t otherwise. 

The G.F.J. in tantalum measures a hair over 39mm in diameter, and makes Zenith the latest brand to be able to boast of crafting a watch case in the notoriously difficult to machine material. Tantalum has a distinct blue/grey hue to it and is incredibly dense. The watch has a very pronounced tactile presence that is unlike what you’d experience from gold or platinum, and is honestly a challenge to explain. There are so few tantalum watches, we don’t yet have an established vocabulary for it in the watch community. Any tantalum watch made in series is an impressive achievement and a flex unto itself for a watch manufacturer. The tantalum G.F.J. is limited to 20 pieces and retails for $83,400. 

The gold G.F.J. with a bloodstone dial has identical case measurements, and retails for $51,900. This edition is limited to 161 pieces (the delta between limited edition quantities of the tantalum and gold watches is another piece of evidence in how tough tantalum is to work with). 

More information on the new G.F.J. releases from Zenith can be found on their website here.

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