Zener diodes are specially designed diodes (heavily doped) that have low reverse voltage breakdown.
Due to this characteristic zener diodes are connected backwards to normal operation. If zener is forward biased it acts as regular diode with forward voltage drop at 0.6V. Zener diod backward voltage breakdowns may range from 2.4V up to 100V. Truly speaking if you need like 1.2V then probably you need to connect two forward biased diodes in series for 0.6V+0.6V = 1.2V drop.
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