Longines: "The most admired watch in the world"
Longines was an award-winning watch in the decades before Omega and Rolex were born. An innovator, the transformer of Swiss watchmaking and favored by Einstein, aviation heroes and Hollywood royalty.
Alan Boal
An ancient brand, pursuing excellence
An interesting story about Longines, with its long history of watchmaking Proof, its famous winged hourglass logo is the world's oldest trademark - still in continuous use today, first registered in 1889.
As early as 1867, Longines won an award at the Paris World's Fair. In fact, they won several observatory prizes for precision timing at the World's Fair.
Founded in 1832 in Saint-Imier, Switzerland by Auguste Agassiz as 'Raiguel Jeune & Cie', it was not until 1867 that the company took on the Named Longines, taken from the local area ('Les Longines' or 'The Long Meadows'). Agassiz's nephew Ernest Francillon brought all watchmaking enterprises under one roof.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Longines was the leader in watchmaking - as you can see by comparison, Omega and Rolex did not exist at the time, and it was not until 1903 and 1915 that these two brands were born.
Longines, aware of the new factory revolution coming from the United States and the failure of the growing British watchmaking industry, became an important influence in the modernization of Swiss watchmaking, encouraging a shift away from a "family-style" cottage industry. Switching to machine-assisted production of large parts while still maintaining its famous Swiss quality.
Vintage Longines in the 1950s and 1960s offered high quality and great value watches, today Longines prices are much lower than Rolex and Omega watches but did you know? In comparison, Longines' movement is completely "home-made" and processed with fine craftsmanship. There are no springs and large plates with good tilt.
The most visually obvious difference is that Longines uses round brass “chatons” to house rubies, in which the movement’s pivot rotates. Chatons were used in the early days when mass jewelry production was less advanced so that uneven jewelry could be inserted into the movement more easily. Its beauty however makes the movement appear golden and lustrous, continuing the expensive and exotic design. Interestingly, many very high-end watchmakers today still adhere to this old-fashioned approach, such as A Lange & Sohne.
Chronographs and the Space Race
Anyone interested in watches will notice that Omega sports watches have long-term cooperation with NASA for decades and landed on the moon in 1969.
It is well known to watch fans that Omega defeated its competitors in NASA tests with Rolex and Longines. The Longines crystal deformed and fell off during high temperature and decompression tests, while the Omega remained intact.
Ironically, Longines is a brand with a long and distinguished expertise in chronograph development, having first launched the first “20H” pocket chronograph as early as 1868.
Longines created the most important chronograph "13.33Z" in 1913. This was the first chronograph movement designed specifically for a watch, and it was a "monopusher", i.e. it had only one button to operate it, unlike most modern chronographs today which have two separate start/stop and reset buttons. timer. Later, in 1936, the beautiful "13ZN" launched another world first - a "flyback" chronograph that could be reset and restarted immediately without stopping.
There is no need to exaggerate their innovativeness - in fact, even today, monopusher and flyback chronographs are technical achievements that most brands cannot produce.
In an era when watches were still an indispensable tool rather than a piece of jewelry, the development of the former pocket watch chronograph was revolutionary, allowing for easier "hands-free" operation, which would become crucial in early aviation and the military .
Although Longines failed to become the official equipment of astronauts, its history is enviable.
There was no "official" timekeeper appointed for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, but Longines provided the watches and competed with Omega for the right to time time at subsequent Olympics.
Longines was a huge innovator in race timing, inventing the first finish line "break" timing system in 1912 to stop the timer when the winner crossed, and also inventing the "Photogines" ” and the “Contifort” system, which records the contestants’ times and infers the winner.
Charles Lindbergh became a world-famous star when he made the first non-stop transatlantic solo flight between New York and Paris in 1927, and it was Longines who accompanied him A daring feat of 33.5 hours. Lindbergh subsequently collaborated with Longines to create the "Lindberg Hour Angle Table" in 1931, a tool table that enabled pilots to calculate their position through celestial navigation.
In the 1942 film Casablanca, screen legend Humphrey Bogart wore his personal Longines watch, and later in a Longines advertising campaign he collaborated with another Audrey Hepburn, a film icon, appeared with the slogan "Elegance is an Attitude."
Combining examples of performance and elegance, Longines also served as race timekeepers for Formula One racing in the 1980s, the Commonwealth Games, the French Open and horse racing events such as Royal Ascot and the Melbourne Cup. .
When the Quartz 'Crisis' watch came out in 1970, even Rolex produced its own Quartz watch, and the Swiss were afraid of being left behind by the Japanese. Longines once again took the lead, announcing its 1969 "Super Quartz" as the world's first mass-produced quartz watch. In 1984, they launched an "ultra-precision" thermally compensated quartz watch that was only 1.98 mm thick.
In 2008, a gold Longines once owned by physics genius Albert Einstein was auctioned for $596,000.
Absorbed by Swatch
Longines was purchased by "Ebauches SA" in 1971, when they merged in 1983 to form the watchmaking giant (later known as "Swatch Group"), they gradually gave up their R&D and production capabilities.
Today, the Swatch Group is pleased to sell you a Longines watch.
But the problem is that as the largest watchmaking group in the world, they also want to sell you watches from 17 other brands, including Omega, Blancpain, Breguet, Tissot, Hamilton, Mido, Rado and Harry Winston.
Without competing with yourself, compete with brands such as Rolex, TAG Heuer, and Cartier.
So what should we do? In order to prevent the same-level brands in the group from cannibalizing each other's sales, Swatch people have structured their own "family" to let each brand compete for its own niche market.
Fun & funky Swatches sell for less than ￡150; Omega relies on its well-publicized NASA and James Bond associations to have a mid-range market of ￡3,000 to ￡7,000 . Blancpain & Breguet and Breguet & Breguet cater for discerning buyers who wish to acquire high-end, handcrafted haute couture timepieces priced in excess of ￡10,000.
Where will Longines’ status remain? Fill this gap in the market at a lower price than Omega.
This is an artificial mid-level layout, slightly below the proud brand that once occupied the pinnacle of watchmaking.
But, in a sense, is this positioning of Swatch actually a good thing for watch buyers?
Some luxury brands do not provide the true value for money products they deserve, and use excessive publicity, heavy advertising, and expensive celebrity endorsers that ultimately lead to inflated prices paid by customers.
If you want to buy a Swiss-made watch from a famous old brand with a long history, producing elegant, beautiful and innovative watches, then Longines’ suppressive positioning of Swatch is actually a Excellent opportunity to buy a high quality watch.
Longines stopped making in-house movements in the late 1980s, and while they still miss the old-school true "in-house" movements and lack of high-end finishing, they do benefit from reliable movements such as these. "ETA" (also part of the Swatch Group).
However, it is interesting to note that today all references to Longines movements begin with the letter "L". It can be recognized that although the basis is ETA's universal movement, they are still specially customized for Longines.
They maintain a good partnership. Other companies like IWC, Breitling, TAG Heuer, Panerai and others also use ETA derived movements - but they get you more perks.
Longines is an excellent choice for daily wear. About 1.5 million watches are purchased every year, making Longines one of the biggest monsters in the watchmaking industry.
Heritage Resurrected
It can be argued that Longines lacks a truly famous model to launch an advertising campaign, such as James Bond’s Rolex Submariner or Steve McQueen’s Monaco (TAG Heuer) like that.
In recent years, Longines has worked hard to change this situation by reintroducing some watches that can trace its brand heritage, such as:
The Legend Diver in 2007 release, which means Longines was one of the first to ignite the now-ubiquitous vintage-inspired design craze, and they’re doing a great job. Longines has recreated the "Super Compressor" case of its 1960 model 7042 with an internal rotating bezel and twin crowns, resulting in a handsome and distinctive dive watch capable of diving to 300 meters.
The 2017 Avigation BigEye chronograph won the "Best Revival" award at the "Grand Prix de la Haute Horlogerie Geneva" that year. It is a modern version of the Longines Pilot's Chronograph from the 1930s, with a framed domed sapphire crystal and an alluring asymmetrical dial design. Powered by Longines' exclusive L688.2 movement, it has a 54-hour power reserve and features a precise "column wheel" starting function - usually only found in high-end chronographs.
Longines ranks among the top watchmaking companies by resurrecting its VHP 'Ultra High Precision' quartz in 2017, a watch with extremely high precision that ensures no more than 5 seconds, plus a perpetual calendar that never resets, and an ingenious gear position detection system that automatically resets the watch hands after an impact or strong magnetic field.
In 2018, MasterCollectionAnnualCalendar brings some of the complications offered by brands, often at a higher price. Surprisingly, the mechanical annual calendar function (i.e. showing both date and month, and automatically showing 30- and 31-day months, requiring only manual reset every February) was only just developed. Just like 1996, Patek Philippe. The exclusive 64-hour power reserve L897.2 movement is the most affordable premium annual calendar watch to date.
Although perhaps not quite what they once were in their glorious heyday, vintage or modern Longines watches still offer some elegant watchmaking as they outdo themselves by adhering to their historical principles of innovation, quality and innovation.
Let’s look at some data first. According to calculations by the American investment bank Morgan Stanley, in 2017, only six Swiss watch brands had a turnover of more than 1 billion Swiss francs, and Longines was one of them. Therefore, there is no doubt that Longines is a commercially successful brand. In other words, Longines produces large quantities and sells well.
Longines is not considered a top-end watch. It focuses on the mid-range market, with prices generally ranging from 10,000 to 20,000. It is one of the most competitive brands in this price range. In fact, the positioning of Longines in history was much higher than it is now, but it is obvious that Longines now is more famous and more profitable.
Longines is doing quite well in the domestic market, and its design is also quite pleasing, which is in line with the aesthetics of most Chinese people. In addition, Longines has a lot of popularity in China by inviting some celebrities to be spokespersons and sponsoring some sports events. Therefore, for those who want to buy a slightly better watch that can be worn, but do not want to spend too much money on a watch, Longines is a good choice.
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Among other things, among the second- and second-class brands with ETA as the main camp, many brands are currently using C80 cores in their entry-level models to replace the original ones. 2824/2892.
The C80 core only increases the energy storage time by over-squeezing the thickness of the spring/spring box and greatly reducing the frequency. The size of the energy storage will directly lead to a large error gap in the movement. The stability of the movement is very poor, and if you want to wind it automatically, it can hardly be fully wound. The 80-hour energy storage is basically useless and just a gimmick.
For this kind of movement, Longines definitely does not use it. It only uses its own 888.2. On the issues of frequency reduction and squeezing the spring/spring box, the balance is very good, which can ensure the stability of the movement. properties, and improves the energy storage time.
Based on this alone, Longines is worthy of consumers! Not to mention the brand's historical accumulation, Longines was one of the first brands to produce its own movements and externally supplied movements, and they were all top-notch movements at the time.
Although Longines is now "forced to downgrade", when Longines took the high-end route, many brands that are now positioned higher than Longines still don't know where they are.