Lemania Tg195 Watch for the Swedish Military
No: 54-1xxx
Circa 1954
Lemania cal. 2225 mechanical movement, black dial, luminous Arabic numerals, outer minute divisions, luminous hands, central seconds hand with luminous arrow tip, circular case, pusher at 2 o'clock for resetting seconds, case back engraved with Swedish Military triple crown
40mm
More about Lemania:
Alfred Lugrin was born and raised in Switzerland in the mid-19th Century, and early on started working for various watch companies designing chronograph movements. He founded his own company, called A. Lugrin S.A. in 1884, and enjoyed much success. In 1918, the Lemania Watch Company was created, and soon after in 1920 Alfred’s son-in-law Marius Meylan became the managing director. In 1932 Meylan purchased the Lemania company and would continue to market watches and movements under that name.
In the 1950’s, Lemania began producing timer watches for the Swedish Military bomb squad. These watches featured a pusher in the band at 2 o’clock, and when pushed, the crown would pop out and the seconds hand would jump to 12 o’clock. In this position, the wearer could set the time. When they pushed the crown in, the seconds hand would start to run again. This complication was useful for members of the bomb squad to synchronize watches before a military mission. Lemania continued to supply watches to the Swedish Military through the mid-1980’s.
The watches for the Swedish Military are recognizable by several traits – the “Tg195” designation on the dial and three crowns engraved on the case back, known as “tre kronor”, the Swedish coat of arms. The earliest examples produced to the military did not have the “Tg” marking, and had smaller crowns engraved. Later examples featured larger crowns engraved on the back and “Tg195” was added to the dial with a capital “T” and lowercase “g”, finally evolving to have all capital letters – “TG195”. Tg stands for “giving time”, or in Swedish, “Tid Givare”.
The present watch is a fine example of a military watch with the “Tg195” designation, a well-preserved case and clear engravings, and attractively aged luminous numerals and hands.