Help me identify this Lemania stopwatch

[kungfugerbil]

Please :)

I have this rather lovely Nero Lemania stopwatch and don't know much about it. It's a mechanical handwound 1/100ths second stopwatch where each revolution of the large hand takes 3 seconds. The subdial records seconds up to a total of 2 minutes.

Now, what lasts less than two minutes and you would need to measure very accurately? I know that some Lemania were military issued but this shows no signs of being issued. A lot of googling hasn't found me anything the same so I'm stumped. Any clues?

[titch345]

Please :)

I have this rather lovely Nero Lemania stopwatch and don't know much about it. It's a mechanical handwound 1/100ths second stopwatch where each revolution of the large hand takes 3 seconds. The subdial records seconds up to a total of 2 minutes.

Now, what lasts less than two minutes and you would need to measure very accurately? I know that some Lemania were military issued but this shows no signs of being issued. A lot of googling hasn't found me anything the same so I'm stumped. Any clues?

Could it be to time a move in chess ?

[kungfugerbil]

Could it be to time a move in chess ?

Nice idea... It could well be something sports related - in my searches I found a Heuer that was similar (3 seconds per rotation) billed as a sports timer from 1970. Havent found one just like this though :)

[padale]

It's a lot like the one in the middle bottom on page 401:-

http://www.onthedash.com/Guide/_Cata...ow=Page401.jpg

The whole catalogue is here:-

http://www.onthedash.com/Guide/_Cata...70-71_Catalog/

Nice looking piece BTW, sports track and field seems likely.

Paul.

[kungfugerbil]

Cheers Paul. Looking at your link gave me the idea to search for catalogues and I found a couple in a late 50s Lemania one with the same dial layout and function (the top two on the right Here ) but those have use the 5140 cal movement and mine appears to sport a (later?) 9046 movement. I can't however find out *anything* about the movement and when it was used.

Frustrating...Have been googling for ages and still not that much the wiser :)

It has a serial number but again there doesn't seem to be a publicly available way to cross reference that to a date.

[monogroover]

I was quite intrigued by this, and came across this thread, about a similar model made by Gallet:

http://mb.nawcc.org/showthread.php?t=64444

This is one interesting opinion from that thread (doesn't sound that likely to me but that's just my hunch):

I still have the 3-second stopwatch I bought back in the 1970's. I was a police officer and as traffic radar was just starting to be used there had to be another way to measure speed. The city would come out and mark the street with a symbol similar to a bracket ([) where officers requested them. They would put them in pairs a certain distance apart. I would sit on a side street where I could start and stop the watch as cars crossed over the marks. We had a little chart that said how fast the car was going and it made a big difference what fraction of a second was timed.

So I'm sure they were pretty specialized to police traffic enforcement.

[monogroover]

Another thread here, with a pic of a Chinese three-second stopwatch, allegedly made for "military use"

http://forums.watchuseek.com/f72/360-00 ... -2452.html

[seikopath]

im guessing its artillery related

[kungfugerbil]

Excellent, cheers all. Getting closer slowly :)

It certainly has the 360,000bph movement - it sounds like an angry bee in the case. Trying to discern movement in the tiny balance is a challenge too :lol: I'm just impressed they were making 1/100th second mechanical timers 50+ years ago.

Ok, so based on the heuer it looks like a sporting timer. The movement is visually identical to the one featured in this ebay ad, although this one takes 6 seconds to rotate and has no accumulator subdial. It looks to be the same family of movement though and if the date is correct would have this at late 60s to early 70s.

What else do we know about Nero Lemania? The name according to some forums was the 'brand' that Lemania used only when flogging watches to the British forces, so that muddies it somewhat.

Any more ideas? It's an interesting chase :) Thanks for your ideas so far!

[donrogers1uk]

I have the same stopwatch and it originates from UKAEA Harwell.
It was used in nuclear research.
Any one know how much its worth? Its in original box and perfect working order?

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