The 1960s saw the race for the development of the world’s first automatic chronograph :

Two groups were fighting in this race : The group of Movado/ Zenith versus Heuer/ Breitling/ Hamilton/ Dubois Depraz. Both groups achieved their aims at about the same time and exhibited their new developments at the Basel Fair in 1969. Both claimed to be the first to introduce the first automatic chronograph in the world. However, the calibre 11 by the group of Heuer/ Breitling/ Hamilton/ Dubois Depraz beat the Movado/ Zenith team : you can read a detailled story on this race on my other watch website at www.navitimer.net : see "chronomatic section"

Today only a few integrated automatic chronographs remain on the market.

In 1972, Lemania released the calibre 1340 still existing as the 1350.

The well known Valjoux 7750 was released in 1973.

1978 : the Lemania 5100, the simplified successor to the 1340/1341 , was released.

In the late 70’s the Japanese quartz watches flooded the market , resulting in a big watch crisis in Switzerland : Breilting shut down, many independant brands were either acquired or simply disapeared … however some Swiss manufacturers still believed in mechanical technology and did not give up. the SSIH group (swatch group) acquired Lemania and had in their brand Omega , the specialist of automatic chronographs : they decided to develop a cheap chronograph movement easy to manufacture : the Lemania 5100

Like its ancestor the 1340, the 5100 has a central chronograph minute counter that was easy-to-read, unlike chronographs which used subdials. this is a unique feature in the chronograph movement

Omega asked Lemania to add a 24 hour indicator on the 1340 , this 24 hour indicator became a standard when the Lemania 5100 was developped , also the Lemania 5100 added the "day of the week" display as a standard.

The Lemania 5100 presents unusual constructions. The navette-type chronograph mechanism is fitted between the dial and the base plate (usually placed between the base plate and the automatic winding system)

Sinn introducted the Sinn 142 in 1980, at the same time as Omega released their second edition of the Speedmaster Mark IV. The Sinn 142 is a large tool-watch with a highly functional dial.

Orfina’s Porsche Design chronograph in the early 1980s was another functional (and minimalist design) that used the Lemania 5100.

German military forces have edited a specification for a military chronograph in 1985 , 3 different suppliers win the contract , all using Chronographs powered with the Lemania 5100 : Tutima , Orfina Porsche Design and Arctos

Even Alain Silberstein used the 5100, changing the color of some of the nylon parts in his “Krono Bauhaus”.

At the end of the 90’s Sinn released their EZM1 (Einsatz-Zeitmesser 1), a chronograph design using the 5100 that moves the crowns and pushers to the left side of the case (in addition to removing all subdials and the day/date functions). Tutima also introduced a left handed version of their military chronograph with crown and pushers on the left side.

In 2001 the first rumors of Swatch group stopping the production of the Lemania 5100 where heard. most watch brands in the Swiss industry have been acquired by groups (Swatch,LVMH, Richemont …) at the only exception of the two big independent brands Breitling and Rolex.

Some small watch manufacturers are still independent , among them some users of the Lemania 5100 : Tutima, Sinn , Fortis, Koblod , Bell & Ross … but Lemania itself has been acquired by Swatch group

Nicholas Hyaek (in charge of Swatch Group) has decided that Lemania movements would only be available to companies under the Swatch Group umbrella (that is also why Breitling could not source the Lemania 1873 formally used in the Cosmonaute model), No Swatch Group company is currently producing a 5100 based watch, so it will be discontinued because of this edict.

The Lemania 5100 movement has been hopefully "saved" by gouvernement contracts : Sinn and Tutima, which had a contract to supply watches to the German military, will be able to continue to obtain movements for that purpose for the length of that contract , after which if nothing changes, the 5100 will be discontinued .