Why We Love It

Lemania is one of the oldest and most revered names in watchmaking, and watches like this two register chronograph certainly hold up the manufacture’s reputation.

Aesthetically and technically, it truly makes the grade. The manually-wound Calibre 15TL movement is housed in a 37.5mm steel case, large for the time but the perfect size for today. The white dial, rimmed with a red tachymeter scale, is so crisp that you can’t but help feel as fresh and clean as it is when you wear it.

With an air of sophistication and elegance, this Lemania is has all the classic design cues of turn-of-the-century chronographs, yet feels right at home on the modern wrist.

The Story

The Calibre 15TL was just one of many historic calibres crafted by Lemania, one of the leading movement manufacturers of the 20th century.

Adapted from a pocket watch movement, the Calibre 15TL is large for the time—33.3mm on its own. Serviceable and yet still elegant, the Calibre 15TL would form the basis for the legendary CH27. History would know it as the Omega Calibre .321 that Buzz Aldrin would take to the moon in Apollo 11 in his Speedmaster.

Its successor, the aforementioned Calibre .321, ranks as one of the most important chronograph movements of all time. But the 15TL is no less worthy of attention. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s it was found most often in watches issued to the world’s air forces, as well as in civilian chronographs seen here.