Hi!
Lemania is a brand that deserves much more recognition than it seem to get these days.
Some background on Lemania and the Omega/Tissot connection:
After the great depression in the late 1920´s and early 1930´s the Swiss watch industry was going through their worst crisis prior to the Quartz onslaught of the 1970´s. So in 1930 Omega and Tissot joined together under a common umbrella called SSIH (Société Suisse pour l’Industrie Horlogère).
Lemania was at the time known as a relatively small volume, but high quality, manufacturer of complicated watches like chronographs. These where both wristwatches, but also various timekeepers for military, aviation and automotive purposes.
As times grew even harsher, Lemania decided to join Omega and Tissot in SSHI in 1932.
The deal was that Lemania would get fresh capital and access to a wider and stronger sales organisation, and the other brands within SSHI would get access to the technically advanced moments made by Lemania. Mr. Marius Meylan, CEO of Lemania, was granted a seat at the board of SSHI at the time of merger, and Omega suddenly had access to top grade chronographs, allowing them to become the official supplier to the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.
Omega has been the official Olympic timekeepers ever since!
Within SSHI at this time Omega was the luxury brand, Tissot the budget alternative and Lemania the technically advanced “tool watch” supplier.
Lemania continued to be a part of the SSHI until the early 1980s when the Quartz crisis forced the restructuring of the company. Lemania was sold out of SSHI as a management buy-out, and renamed Nouvelle Lemania. SSHI later became the Swatch Group.
In 1992 Nouvelle Lemania was bought by company Breguet, and in 1999 Breguet was bought by the Swatch group making the full circle!
As a part of rebuilding Breguet as a extreme luxury/high-end brand (and providing Breguet with "in-house" production capabilities) the Swatch group renamed Nouvelle Lemania into Manufacture Breguet. The name Lemania is, for now, no longer in use.
As a sidenote: Almost all complicated Omega movements since the 1940's and all the way up to the 1980's where designed and made by Lemania (under the supervision of Mr. A. Piguet). This includes chronographs and moonphase watches (Cosmic/381).
