Description
Very unusual limited edition, single button flyback one minute chronograph powered by new old stock 1970s vintage Lemania movement. With boxes and instructions (in Japanese)
Ken Trading of Ginza Tokyo Japan created a series of homage watches to collectable Rolex watches towards the end of the last century and at the start of this one, in the early 2000s he made a homage to the Panerai but used the patented crown locking device, so Richemont (the owners of Panerai their patents and trademarks) went after him in the Japanese courts, he lost the case and was no longer able to make watches using the crown locking device. Shortly after, the company ceased making any watches. The Zerographer is by far the most rare and desirable of all the watches, as only 99 were made and they were never available other than through his shop in the Ginza.
The watch has the ultra high gloss so called ‘mirror’ dial with heavy Luminova indices in the mixed Roman/Arabic style which was invented by Rolex, but which has become known as the ‘California’ dial, with gilt and red print. The polished steel hands also have heavy application of Luminova, while the sweep seconds hand is gilt, enabling it to stand out against the black dial.
The movement is the Lemania calibre 865, a 17 jewel 21,600 bph stripped down version of the famed 861 used in Omega Speedmaster Professional watches since the 1970s. This economy version was produced by losing the minute and hour counters and the wheels and levers involved. To the best of my knowledge, this movement was only ever used in the Omega Chronostop from the late 1960s, as by this point Lemania was owned by Omega. How Mr. Sato obtained these movements I have no idea.
The case is made from highly amagnetic 316L stainless steel and has a bi directional rotating bezel whose design is heavily influenced by the bezel on the famed 1937 Zerograph, one of the rarest of all vintage Rolex watches. This bezel is marked for the 24 hour timezones although I have no idea how this works with the 60 second chronograph. It is waterproof to 100m or 330 ft. It has beautifully downturned lugs with perfect highly polished bevels on their edges.
Dial is 95+%, as are both case & movement
Diameter 39.5mm; Lug to Lug 46.5mm; Height 14mm., it takes a 20mm strap and the original fliplock Oyster style bracelet is fitted.
SOLD
