ZRC Grands Fonds 3000
ZRC Grands Fonds 3000 Project
The Geneva-based brand ZRC has revamped its iconic watch, gifting it with a more athletic style, adorned with titanium and foolhardy enough to stand immersions of depths greater than 5,000 meters, ensuring absolute diving safety.
The Grands Fonds, developed by ZRC back in 1958 and embraced as the French National Navy official watch in 1964, stood out with its robustness and technical sophistication specially-designed for diving down to depths of 300 meters. These two overriding features along with its unusual silhouette set off with a screwed crown at 6 o’clock have ensured this piece has flourished over the decades without ever becoming outdated. And, just like any self-respecting icon, it has successfully evolved over time espousing technological breakthroughs, such as the Crown Protection SystemTM and the Easy Clean System (ECSTM) for its 2015 reissue which contribute to its reliability and longevity.
ZRC nurtures the streamlined sophisticated look of the Grands Fonds 300 and, at the same time capitalizes on the power of its stylistics, without ever altering its purity or simplicity. The Geneva brand now enhances its collection by breathing life into a new superboosted, athletic timepiece: the Grands Fonds 3000 Project watch, an avant-garde concept ever-so dear to ZRC. Although this virtually indestructible timepiece flaunts undeniable family resemblance with its elder sibling from the 1960s, nonetheless it boasts its own temperament and intrepid personality. One-of-a-kind boldness that the Grands Fonds 3000 is endowed with and adorned with.
This unlimited edition makes its mark in watchmaking History as being the first watch in the world able to withstand immersion to a depth of 5,000 meters without a helium escape valve and with a thickness of less than 20 millimeters. The incredible precision of the machining on its 42 mm-diameter, 19.65 mm-thick grade 2 titanium case enable the elements which make it up to compress together and as such prevent any gaseous molecules from penetrating. Moreover, its 316L steel caseback equipped with a titanium double seal and clamp ring resists pressure and absorbs warping. Sleekly-aerodynamic like a shark reigning supreme over the marine world, the Grands Fonds 3000 although born to conquer the ocean and its deepest secrets firmly asserts performance that is equaled only by its simplicity.
The light, solid, wear- and corrosion-resistant grade 2 titanium is a material which is endowed only with advantages, the reason that ZRC chose it to fashion the case of its latest opus. The latter is complemented by a 60-notch unidirectional rotating bezel topped with a ceramic ring, another light technical material which is practically scratch-proof and immune to ultraviolet rays which tarnish colors. Its black-hued navy blue color weaves a striking contrast with the blue-glowing white Super-LumiNova® coated phosphorescent markers, must-haves for deep-water immersion.
The dial, protected by a 5 millimeter-thick cambered sapphire crystal which refutes any alteration in terms of readability, actually traces the sensations experienced by a diver as they descend to the depths through vertical gradient tones beginning with indigo and gradually darkening to become totally black. Traditional skeletonized magnum-style hands, adorned with Super-LumiNova, fan out from the center of this blue-hued disc and hover over an hour chapter featuring indexes and three white Arabic numerals. A silvered one points to the hours whilst a bright red varnished one ticks past the minutes. The seconds are marked by a “lollipop” direct-drive tipped with a luminescent dot and vermilion dash. These features are driven by the Sellita SW200-1 caliber, a well-proven self-winding mechanical movement which vibrates at a standard frequency of 4 Hertz and delivers a power reserve of 38 hours.
Because “Life is an Adventure”, the Grands Fonds 3000 watch is blessed with the same abilities and agility as a marine predator. Just wrap it round your wrist with its natural injected rubber strap attached by a specially-designed ZRC folding clasp and head off to explore the world’s most secret ocean trenches.
The abyss is your oyster!
Technical specifications
CASE MANUFACTURE
Monobloc case
Screwed case back & crown
DIAMETER 40,5 mm
MATERIAL Titan grade II - Non magnetic* 316L steel caseback (ISO764 Standard: 4800 A/m)
BEZEL ECSTM system (Patent pending N°1462496)
Unidirectional 60 divisions rotating bezel.
CROWN Located at 6H (Crown Protection System™). Inverted screwed thread with dual sealing
GLASS 5mm padded sapphire
WATER RESISTANCE Tested depth : 5000m (501 bars)
MOVEMENT CALIBRE SELLITA “Elaborated” SW200-1
SETTING +7sec/day
AMPLITUDE (± 7sec/day) = from 0 to 14 sec/day max.
WINDING Automatic winding
POWER RESERVE 38 hours
RUBBER STRAP MANUFACTURE
New rubber strap compatible for both single & butterfly buckles. Inspired by the design of the metal band it is very comfortable and available in many colors.
MATERIAL Rubber
BUCKLE Titan single tongue buckle
Current
watches
Newsletter feed
Suscribe
