For most of my watch-buying life, fun dive watches have mostly been big dive watches. Colorful, loud, capable waterproof options have tended to correspond with case dimensions of equal impact and presence, while the sub-40mm dive watch space has belonged to relatively sedate interpretations of the classic dive watch formula — and even then, 39mm has been the sweet spot for ‘small’ divers. But over the last few release cycles (if those even exist anymore), we’ve started to see signs of a shift, and I can think of few better examples of this change than the Zenith Defy Revival Diver A3648, released last year as part of Zenith’s grand re-entry into the dive space.

Last summer, I got to spend a few weeks with the Zenith Defy Revival Diver’s bigger, brasher brother, the Defy Extreme Diver, and I came away wildly impressed. The Defy Extreme Diver was a watch that punched way above its weight class (or at least its price point) while feeling like a genuinely novel take on a modern dive watch from a brand with shockingly little history in the space. So when I had the chance to spend some time with that watch’s vintage-inspired counterpart, I jumped.

This extended visit with the Revival Diver wasn’t my first hands-on experience with the watch — I got to spend a few minutes with it when I went to pick up the Extreme Diver back in June — but on that day, I didn’t find myself particularly taken with the Revival. While I’ve long admired Zenith’s dual identity as both a premiere maker of modern sports watches, and as one of the industry’s leaders in historical re-issues, personally, I’ve always leaned slightly more toward Zenith’s more modern offerings, so it would be fair to characterize my affection for the Revival Diver as a bit of a slow burn.

Still, it’s impossible to ignore just how good a job the brand has done with its vintage recreations, especially when directly faced with any of their Revival lineup. It would be easy enough for the brand to pump out revival watches as purely an exercise in brand education, but these are also watches people want. That in and of itself is no small thing, and the Defy Revival Diver may be my favorite entrant into that side of the Zenith catalog yet, or, at worst, a very close second (I do love the Revival Shadow).

A Small Diver for Every Wrist

The first thing you’ll notice about the Defy Revival Diver is its size. This is not a big watch in any context, but especially in the context of other 600m water-resistant dive watches; 37mm is just not within the expected parameters for a high-spec sports watch, especially not one from a major luxury brand looking to capture a broad market. It’s even rarer for a major group brand to release a watch like this without expressly gendering it.

Smaller dive watches have usually come with aesthetic compromises and have been among the worst victims of the dreaded ‘shrink it and pink it’ approach so many of my colleagues have criticized over the last decade-plus. The Defy Revival Diver completely flips this on its head by offering a genuinely compact package with universal appeal.

As we’ve come to expect from Zenith’s Revival series, the new A3648 retains the 37mm wide, 15.5mm thick dimensions of its 50-year-old predecessor, but those numbers only tell a part of the story. On wrist, the Defy Revival Diver is nothing but presence, and true to its own name, the watch manages to defy both its principle dimensions, feeling both wider and flatter than the measurements alone would suggest. A huge part of this is down to a combination of the highly faceted case architecture and the heavily shrouded lugs.

Visually, the Defy Revival Diver wears its thickness well, with a layered design that prevents any part of the watch from looking too thick and breaking up the look of the watch. This, paired with the heavily domed sapphire crystal, really diminished the visual impact of the case’s thickness. Also, despite its angular looks, the A3648 is a relatively round watch, with its many sharp facets forming a sort of compound slope that easily lets the watch slide under a cuff. The other side of this equation is the shrouded lug, which both succeeds in adding some visual heft to the watch and also means that the bracelet sits close to the case and tight to the wrist.

Speaking of the bracelet, it’s… fine. It’s a handsome option and complements the watch nicely. It is slightly difficult to size correctly, but it’s saved by single sided screws and a really comfortable drape. Still, anyone looking for modern features like on-the-fly micro-adjust will be left wanting, though the bracelet does have a dive extension. Over the few weeks I had the A3648, I made a point of seeing the watch on a wide range of wrist sizes, and no one I shared the watch with felt the Revival Diver was either too big or too small. What many of them did comment on was the look of the thing, which brings us to the most divisive element of the watch.

The 1970s Called…

This is either a watch you’re gonna love or a watch you’re gonna hate. It may be compact, but this is a watch born in the 1970s, and it’s not subtle. Between the bright-orange colorway, the mix of brushed and polished details, and its faceted architecture (did I mention the violently orange colorway?), the A3648 grabs attention. More than most watches I’ve reviewed recently, it also seems to be a watch whose appeal can be split down along enthusiast lines, with people like me appreciating the watch for what it is and ‘civilians’ struggling to get with it.

Admittedly, beyond just the color, the Defy Revival Diver sports a handful of controversial details, notable among these being the 4:30 placement of the crown and date window. Ignoring the divisive nature of the placement, Zenith knows how to implement a 4:30 date, and the historical context of a watch like this makes the reviled feature far more palatable. Whether or not you like a 4:30 date on a watch (and believe me, I don’t), it’s hard to argue with how Zenith has executed on the concept, especially on a dive watch where the idea of sacrificing even so much as a square-millimeter of lume is anathema. 

Besides, I found that I stopped caring about the 4:30 date placement a few minutes into wearing the watch. On the other hand, where the placement of the date window didn’t really bug me, the 4:30 crown position was a bigger problem. From both an aesthetic and interface perspective, I really would have preferred to see the Defy Revival’s crown moved to 3 o’clock. As it stands, the 4:30 crown, though nicely in line with the date window, crowds the bottom right lug of the case, cutting off the lines of the lug and throwing the watch out of balance.

All things being equal, that’s probably something I could get over — I certainly have no fundamental opposition to atypical crown placement — but when paired with the Revival Diver’s hooded lugs, I found interacting with the crown to be an unpleasant experience, with the pad of my finger constantly at war with the underside of the lug as I wound or set the watch. Not a dealbreaker, and one which may only apply as far as my hands, but certainly cause for pause.

What is far from a dealbreaker is the movement inside the A3648, the Zenith Elite 670. Some might be disappointed by the absence of an El Primero caliber here (like the one found in the significantly larger Defy Extreme Diver), but the Elite 670 is a reliable, if slightly basic automatic in-house movement, and a big part of what allows the Defy Revival Diver to retain its earlier iteration’s compact size and undercut the Extreme Diver’s price by nearly $4,000 — with a retail price of $7,700, the A3648 is firmly positioned at the low end of Zenith’s enthusiast offerings, and should make for a compelling option for plenty of collectors.

At the End of the Day

We talk a lot about the tradeoffs of vintage collecting here. Old watches can feel delicate, and with (often) no way of knowing an individual watch’s history, it can be hard to put your faith in 50-year-old claims of water resistance or accuracy- and that’s before we get to the gross misconduct that increasingly exists within the vintage watch space. A watch like the Defy Revival Diver offers nearly all the fun of a vintage dive watch with absolutely none of the stress, anxiety, or problems.

I love the Zenith Defy Revival Diver. If what you’re looking for is a compact, high-spec, luxury dive watch with a vintage flair that still manages to be really fun and put a smile on your face, this is one to look at very seriously. But if I were spending my own money on a Zenith dive watch today, the Defy Extreme Diver is still the way I would go. That said, after an extended stretch with the Revival Diver on my wrist, it’s a much tighter contest than I had first imagined — certainly much tighter than I proclaimed it last summer — and it’s not a choice I would make easily or quickly. Zenith