£450.00
A superb 1940s Lemania wristwatch in a stainless steel case, with a military-style black dial, cathedral hands, central seconds, and the legendary Lemania S27 T1 movement inside. This is a compact but very serious vintage watch: purposeful, and built around one of the most important movement families in Swiss horology. The overall character is strongly connected with wartime and immediate post-war field watches. The black dial, luminous Arabic numerals, outer minute track, slim polished steel case, and domed acrylic crystal give the watch a practical military appearance, while the Lemania movement elevates it far above a simple utilitarian wristwatch.
A particularly pleasing detail is that a very similar Lemania model appears in a 1944 period advertisement, with the same Ref. 191 case family and a very close dial style. This gives the watch a clear historical context and makes it especially attractive for collectors of early Lemania wristwatches.
Inside this watch is the Lemania S27 T1, developed in the early 1940s. This is not just another small hand-wound movement: it belongs to Lemania’s important 27 mm movement architecture, which later formed the basis for generations of high-grade chronograph and complicated watch calibres.
The same technical family led to the famous CH27 chronograph movement, used in different forms by Omega, Patek Philippe, and other major brands. In Omega form, this lineage became the celebrated calibre 321, known from the first generations of Speedmaster “Moonwatch” chronographs.
The S27 T1 was also used in Lemania’s military ATP watches supplied for the British Royal Army. This makes the movement historically significant, robust, and deeply connected with Lemania’s wartime and post-war production.
Lemania was founded in 1884, by Alfred Lugrin, a highly skilled award-winning watchmaker. The manufacturer enjoyed a decades-long lifespan, but despite merging with Omega and Tissot in 1932 to form the SSIH group, it took heavy blows with the advent of electronic watches, as did the mechanical watch industry at large. Lemania rebranded as Nouvelle Lemania in 1981, and in 1992 it was bought by Montres Breguet. Lemania movements are still used today in a number of well-known watch brands.
