Swiss metal military centre seconds pocket watch Circa 1930

Metal keyless lever military watch by Lemania 
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A rare, Swiss large centre seconds keyless metal deck watch, circa 1930. The watch has a metal case with a glazed movement and a back with a deployment number 1181. It features a Lemania Ankerchronometer movement with a large chronometer balance, centre seconds, and movement number 12383. The original dial is signed and silvered, with an outer minute track, an inner track for 60 seconds indication, centre seconds, and blued steel hands. It is in excellent original condition and comes with the original mahogany wooden box, believed to be from the 1930s. This watch was made by the Italian military institution Indrografico Della Marina Lemania and is part of the collection of the Royal Italian Hydrographic Institute.
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Diameter: 100 mm
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Signed: Lemania, Istituto Idrografico R. Marina
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Lemania
Lemania, later known as Nouvelle Lemania, was a Swiss watch and movement manufacturer founded by Alfred Lugrin in 1884 under the name Lugrin SA in L’Orient Vallée de Joux. Lugrin acquired his expertise as a labourer at Jaeger-LeCoultre in Le Sentier, specializing in producing chronographs, stopwatches, and repeater watches. In 1895, the company moved into its own factory building in L’Orient.

The name Lugrin SA was retained until 1930 when Lugrin’s son-in-law, Marius Meylan established the brand name Lemania Watch Co., based in L’Orient. In 1932, Lemania, Omega, and Tissot merged to form the SSIH group.

Lemania gained fame when the Lemania 1873 movement was selected by NASA in 1962 for use in the Omega Speedmaster Professional (as Omega calibre 861), which caused a stir in 1969 with its use on the moon. Albert Gustave Piguet developed this work.

In 1977, Lemania separated from SSIH as part of a management buyout and changed its name to Nouvelle Lemania. In 1992, Nouvelle Lemania joined the Groupe Horloger Breguet and was taken over by the Swatch Group along with Breguet in 1999.

The works of Lemania and Nouvelle Lemania were highly regarded among experts. The automatic chronograph movement Lemania 5100, known for its robustness and reliability, ceased production at the end of 2002.