Next watch possibilities...
Discussion
The bit in italics translates to:
Yema model designed especially for motorbikes, automatic, calendar, sealed box of up to 4kg or pressure per centimetre squared, mineral glass, strap of black steel, dial glare, super bright hands and index, turning spectacles (I think this is the bezel) with tachimetric graduation (does that make sense?!), instantly calculating the average time.
Yema model designed especially for motorbikes, automatic, calendar, sealed box of up to 4kg or pressure per centimetre squared, mineral glass, strap of black steel, dial glare, super bright hands and index, turning spectacles (I think this is the bezel) with tachimetric graduation (does that make sense?!), instantly calculating the average time.
Well I've managed to track one down, in fact the very one pictured that has been restored by Rich Askham and features on his site. I couldn't find any other examples so had to be 'direct'. http://thewatchspotblog.com/?s=yema
Should get it in my grubby paws by the new year.
Not much more info on them, dated either 1977 or 1980/81 (in '82 the father passed the company over to his son who didn't do such a good job against the tide of digital watches then appearing. Yema was then bought and operated by Seiko from '88 to about 2005. They went bankrupt in 2008 but have been re-bought and have reinvented themselves slightly).
Obviously part of a small series of similarly cased 'sous marine' watches - this one in particular has the 'meangraf' function which works out your average speed given time and distance. Apparently it was common for functions of the 'meangraf' / 'flygraf' / 'navygraf' to be interchanged.
I went back to old catalogues of the era (Chronosport were the distributers in the UK in the early seventies but I can't see who was the distributer after this time), but with no great joy. The people the other side of the channel don't seem to know much about them either, despite Yema having quite a following.
The movement is a French Ebauche 4611. It's not a supercompressor despite the appearence but I don't have a twin-crown nor an internal bezel in my small pile of watches so thought this would tick quite a few boxes in addition to the unusual style of the watch and case.
While looking for this I also happened across a few Yema bipoles for sale, if anyone is interested where then let me know.
Should get it in my grubby paws by the new year.
Not much more info on them, dated either 1977 or 1980/81 (in '82 the father passed the company over to his son who didn't do such a good job against the tide of digital watches then appearing. Yema was then bought and operated by Seiko from '88 to about 2005. They went bankrupt in 2008 but have been re-bought and have reinvented themselves slightly).
Obviously part of a small series of similarly cased 'sous marine' watches - this one in particular has the 'meangraf' function which works out your average speed given time and distance. Apparently it was common for functions of the 'meangraf' / 'flygraf' / 'navygraf' to be interchanged.
I went back to old catalogues of the era (Chronosport were the distributers in the UK in the early seventies but I can't see who was the distributer after this time), but with no great joy. The people the other side of the channel don't seem to know much about them either, despite Yema having quite a following.
The movement is a French Ebauche 4611. It's not a supercompressor despite the appearence but I don't have a twin-crown nor an internal bezel in my small pile of watches so thought this would tick quite a few boxes in addition to the unusual style of the watch and case.
While looking for this I also happened across a few Yema bipoles for sale, if anyone is interested where then let me know.
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