The watches and watch movement manufacture Lemania was founded in 1884 by Alfred Lugrin (1858-1920), who had acquired his expertise as a laborer at Jaeger-LeCoultre in Le Sentier. Because of the outstanding quality of his watch movements Lugrin received top awards and gold medals at exhibitions in 1906 in Milan and in 1914 in Bern. From the beginning he had specialized in the production of chronographs, stopwatches and repeaters.
The Lemania Calibre 1873 (Omega Calibre 861) became particularly famous with the Omega Speedmaster, which in 1962 was selected by NASA for manned space flights and on 21 July 1969 accompanied Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon. Lemania then worked with Omega to develop a high-quality cam switching automatic chronograph, launching their Cal. 1340 in 1972. This was followed by the 1974 introduction of Cal. 5100.
Breguet was acquired by the Swatch Group in 1999. Over the next decade, the Lemania name was retired, with the company now called Manufacture Breguet. The company primarily produces calibres for Breguet, but many of its products are also used by other Swatch Group brands. Although Lemania's ownership by SSIH brought it very close to ASUAG, Ebauches SA, and SMH/Swatch Group, it was never part of this conglomerate or of ETA, their movement manufacturer.
Lemania has produced many famous movements, including the following:
Manual Chronograph
1270/1275/1276/1277 - cam switched, 30 minute counter and 60 second subdials
1280/1281 - cam switched, 30 minute and 12 hour counters and 60 second subdials
1872 (1961) - cam switched, 30 minute and 60 second subdials
1873 - cam switched, 30 minute and 12 hour counters and 60 second subdials, optional 24 hour display (aka Frank Mueller 1870, Omega 861/863, Universal Genève 84)
1874
1877 - Breitling Calibre 12
1883 (1983) - cam switched, 30 minute and 12 hour counters and 60 second subdials, date and moon phase
1888 - (aka Ulysse Nardin UN 53)
5200/5250 - pillar wheel
2310/2320/2612 (1942) - pillar wheel, Patek Phillipe 2872 (2310) and CH 27-70 (2310), Omega 321 (2310), Vacheron Constantin 1141 (2320)
Automatic Chronograph
1340 (1972) - cam switched, central chronograph seconds and 60 minute totaliser hands, 12 hour counter at 6:00, small seconds at 9:00, quickset date at 3:00
1341 - adds 24-hour hand at 9:00 (Omega 1040)
1343
5100/5012 (1974) - cam switched, central chronograph seconds and 60 minute counter hands, 12 hour counter at 6:00 and small seconds and 24 hour hand at 9:00, quickset day and date, hacking
1350 (1994) - cam switched
LWO 283 - ETA 2892 with Dubois-Depraz chronograph module - BM 13283
Automatic time-only
8810/8815 (1991) - date and seconds (aka Ebel 080, Longines 990.2, Robergé MMR 3213)
8811/8816 - seconds
8812/8817 - date
8813/8818 - time only (aka Longines L987.2)
8831 - jumping hour
8840 - perpetual calendar
8875 - (aka Robergé MMR 3243)
2010 (1978) - Lassale
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