Ebel didn't just buy the rights to the Lemania. They redesigned the gear train and winding mechanism and increased the jewel count, among other things. So highly regarded was the result, Ebel's Caliber 137, that when Ebel ran into financial difficulties as a result of poor management (after the founders grandson, Pierre Alain Blum, overdiversified and had to sell the company), Ulysse Nardin in 2012 purchased the rights to the Caliber 137 and the tools, hired some of Ebel's watchmakers, and used it as their own in-house chronograph caliber, the UN-150. There was a side deal for Breguet, and now the movement, with an added flyback mechanism, is used in the Breguet Type XX. As for the lack of a hacking seconds, the vaunted Zenith El Primero also doesn't have a hacking seconds. However, if when you're setting the time you hold the crown and wind it backwards just a bit, the second hand will stop. Ebel's are highly refined watches, and because they are so little known, the watches with the Cal 137 and the Cal 134 (when Ebel was using the El Primero) are enormous bargains (a fraction of the cost of the UN and Breguet watches now using the Ebel 137). Freddy commented on the exquisite build quality, something that should be emphasized. Another thing I really like about my Ebel watches is the beautifully designed bracelets, extremely comfortable on the wrist, with the back of the case and the inner sides of the links beautifully sculpted, absolutely no rough edges anywhere. Amazingly comfortable to wear.
All rights to Lemania movements do belong to the Swatch Group, let us remember that these rights have long been passed time wise. At the same time that Ebel was selling these watches with this movement they were also supplied by ETA with an ETA 7770 COSC Certified movement which had beautiful embellishments to the movement with a solid back 😢. All these watches (incl. the Zenith movement watch) these were made for their Discovery 1911 line. They weren’t skimpy on quality, almost over kill! The problem with their bracelet had integrated lugs. Funny to see that recently a whole bunch of mfgrs. have done exactly the same thing: Tissot PRX, the originator of these bracelet was Gerald Genta(watch designer who had worked with Universel Genève back in the 1970-1980), many of his watches have become icons in the watch industry.
