|
|
|
Prendo spunto da un interessante topic:https://orologi.forumfree.it/?t=44381045
Inoltre su gentile consiglio dell'amico Leopoldo,correggo il tipo di movimento non è il 15 tl,ma il più vecchio Lemania 13"' (meccanismo ad ancora,carica manuale,secondi in piccolo,meccanismo del cronografo con ruota a colonna e innesto.1/5sec.,contatori a 30 minuti calibro diametro 28,90 mm,13"' A/h18.000 Rubini 17,usato anche dall'Omega con piccole modifiche su piccoli crono.Omega 28.90 chro.):
About the Lemania company (From lemania15.com written by Donald)
The company is likely named in honour of the “Lac Léman” region of Switzerland. “Lac Léman” is called “Lake Geneva” in English
and “Genfersee” in German. “Lac Léman” was originally called “Lacus Lemanius” by the Romans.
Given the significant contribution of Lemania to 20th century horology, there is very little information available regarding the
history of the company. Henri Alfred Lugrin (1848?-1920) was a self-taught watchmaker although it is more likely that his watchmaking skills
were acquired by becoming an apprentice of a master watchmaker.
By 1876, Lugrin had already taken up a patent for a chronograph module that could, with adjustment, be added on to pocket watch
movements. This module was used by both Waltham and Longines. Census records, from 1880, show that Lugrin was living in New York City at the time, and that he lived with his family which included two sons and his wife Christina (née Marquardt). Lugrin supervised the production of the Waltham chronographs which required attachment of his chronograph module to the 14-size Waltham movements of that era. Production of these pieces began in 1877.
Jacques Eugène Robert, who was the Longines representative in New York at the time, brokered a deal with Lugrin in order that Longines could, from 1879 onwards, make use of the Lugrin patent in the production of Longines’ first chronograph movement, the calibre 20H. In 1884 Lugrin, now back in Switzerland, founded a workshop in
Le Sentier specializing in chronographs (and likely other types of complications). In 1886 he moved his expanding workshop to l’Orient. The site is currently home to the Nouvelle Lémania Company. Lugrin’s daughter, Jane, was born from Lugrin’s second marriage to Alice Sophie (née Aubert), and it was Jane who married Marius
Meylan. Meylan would eventually lead the company after Lugrin’s death in 1920 and would christen it “Lemania” some time in the 1920s.
Not very much else is known about Lugrin’s life and work other than the fact that his company created a fine quarter hour repeater movement some time around the turn of the century; that the Gallet company used Lugrin’s Swiss patent number 359 for production of some of its chronograph movements; and that
Lugrin became, in 1910, an elected member of the canton of Vaud’s legislative assembly (“le Grand Conseil”).
Lemania merged itself into the SSIH (the “Société suisse pour l'industrie horlogère”) in 1932. The SSIH had been founded two years prior with the merger of the Omega and Tissot watch companies. Financial difficulties, due largely to the Great Depression, led to this grouping. Marius Meylan became a member of the board of directors of the SSIH as head of Lemania. Meylan held this position until 1971 when his son, René Meylan, succeeded him. René was eventually succeeded in 1980 by Claude Burkhalter.
The acquisition of Lemania by the SSIH came just in time for the 1932 summer Olympic Games. Omega had been designated the official timekeeper of the games which were held in Los Angeles. The 24 line Omega chronographs employed Lemania rattrapante movements and Lemania would continue to produce 24 line movements for Omega for more than thirty years. Over the next several decades, the SSIH and the Omega brand in particular would also benefit greatly from many of the Lemania
developed movements. Most notable to collectors are the following:
· The Lemania calibre 13CH, also known as the Omega calibre 28.9 CHRO, which was most notably used in watches worn by Amelia Earhart during her attempted
equatorial flight in 1932, and Italo Balbo’s team who took part in the Italian Air Ministry’s Rome-Chicago race in 1933.
· The Lemania calibre 15TL, also known as the Omega and Tissot calibre 33.3: this movement was used in chronograph wrist watches from these SSIH brands throughout the 1930s and into the 1940s.
· In 1942, Lemania developed, in conjunction with Omega, the calibre “27 CHRO C12” which would later become the Lemania calibre 2310 and which would become most famous under its Omega calibre designation, the 321. This movement was used in, among other watches, the Speedmaster line of chronographs and it has the distinction
of being the movement used in the Speedmasters worn on the first Appollo mission to the moon.
· In 1965 Lemania developed the successor to the calibre 2310 which was the calibre 1872. The design for this movement was inspired largely by the earlier calibre 2310
and the calibre 1270 which used a cam instead of a pillar wheel in the execution of the chronograph function. The calibre 1873, which is identical to the calibre 1872 except that it has a twelve hour counter, was known as the Omega calibre 861. A slightly revised version is still produced to this day and is known as the Omega calibre 1861.
· In the early 1970s, Lemania produced the calibre 1340 and its successor the 1341. he calibre 1341 was later revised and in 1978, production began of the famous calibre 5100. This calibre was used in some of the Omega Speedmaster timepieces as well as pieces by Sinn, Tutima and Fortis. In 1985, chronographs employing this movement were supplied to the German Air Force (through various makers including Tutima and Porsche Design).
In 1992, Nouvelle Lémania was bought up by the GHB (Groupe Horloger Breguet), a group owned by the Bahraini based public shareholding company, Investcorp.In 1999, the GHB was bought up by the Swatch Group. And in 2004, Nouvelle Lémania was integrated into Breguet and it is now devoted exclusively to the production and development of movements for this Swatch Group brand.
|
|
.
.
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube
Iscritti