Hi everyone, I picked this Meylan chrono up recently and wanted to know if other forum members could shed some light on it? Looking on the web, they seem to be few and far between, but I couldn't find any with this case configuration. I thought it might have been a put together watch as the crystal is actually an omega one, but the case back is marked very faintly 'meylan stopwatch co' so points to some legitimacy. Interested in your thoughts!
It’s the dial and movement (indeed, Lemania 1873) of a Meylan ref. 816a in a tonneau case. Usually that’s not a good sign for authenticity, but this French website seems to give some credence to Meylan using spare dials and movements on a batch of tonneau cases. Authenticity aside, it’s a lovely watch with a great movement. I like the dial/case combination very much, and would wear the heck out of that Meylan if I owned it.
Ref 9655 was a Lemania reference. Caliber 1873. Meylan (US) was selling Lemania chronographs under their own brand for several decades. Meylan is a family name closely linked to Lemania. I have seen other ref 9655 Meylan watches, but not with the dial layout as yours. I believe your Meylan dial most likely belongs to an older ref. However I cannot confirm this. The case ref 9655 was actually first sold as an Omega Seamaster. Loads of good info on that ref here: https://omegaforums.net/threads/145-006-145-016-seamaster-chronograph-research-thread.77145/page-5 Does your case back look like this?: The reason is that Lemania recycled Seamaster cases for use as ref 9655. Seamaster logo has been turned out. My 9655 below: Cheers