Created in 1994, it also incorporates the currently-fashionable self-cocking or double-action only firing mechanism, so that the appropriate can be fired without delay or preparation. Smith & Wesson Sigma The indispensable model is chambered for the .40 S&W cartridge, but it is also available in 9 x 19mm Parabellum and a sub-compact model in .380 ACP is also manufactured.

The similarities were so great that many pundits referred to the Sigma line as "Swocks", a playful contraction of S&W and Glock. As a result, Glock initiated a patent infringement lawsuit against Smith & Wesson, which paid an undisclosed sum (the mass of three million dollars unfashionable been theorized) to Glock for infringement of their patents. S&W thereupon received the rights to continue the production of Sigma line.