Congrats on selecting a great reference
and for the excellent review!
I just received my ME
(and also my first Zénith) some weeks ago and I'm quite happy with the reference as well!
I agree with most of your positive comments regarding "the ME" but have noted some differences (to "your ME") as well. For instance, my unit's start / stop pusher is very crisp, requiring a firm press (much like my 1861 & 321 mvmts) but the
reset pusher requires very little resistance - quite alarming as none of my other chronographs act in this manner. I'll chalk it up to
individual-movement setup and tolerances... .
Regarding
the rotor, I agree - very quite, but so is the rotor of my 3235
(as well as my 3135 for that matter) so your observation appears to be (again) different than my own.
As for the
SuperLuminova, I see no reason why it wouldn't be 100% SuperLuminova. C1 has a 30% "relative brightness yield" to C3, the strongest. If C3 is what you mean by "base" of Superluminova well then I certainly accept the trade-off of lower yield and having a pure white color, thus matching the watch's colorway, as opposed to C3's vanilla. C3 looks AWESOME on my 321 Ed White but would really be out of place on this dial, IMHO.
You also mentioned that
manually winding the mvmt resulted in a smooth & crisp experience. I'm not sure how to connect the term "crisp" to winding but I will say that my EP requires some effort to wind, quite a bit more than say my 3235, maybe similar to my 1861s. I don't know what's technically better, I just know that I prefer mvmts that are easier on the fingers. My 321 Ed White is a dream in this regard.
Last but not least, the proto-dial-gate scandal. I won't delve into the topic too much in this thread, but that fact that
their prototype dials use sans-serif... speaks volumes. We can discuss this further in the original thread (see my post & pics) if you're so inclined but I do agree that at the end of the day, it's a beautiful reference and I'm very happy with mine
~~~
C3 is more of a vanilla and as far as I can see from pics, your FWC edition has white lume. AFAIK, the only Superluminova pigment that's white in daylight and green when excited is C1
(BG W9 being also white but glows blue). Click to expand...