Longines Moving Towards Bright Future
The timekeeping history of Longines dates back to 1832, the year when Auguste Agassiz established his horological atelier. The business was inherited by Agassiz's nephew, Ernest Francillon. In 1867, the small company moved to a place known as Les Longines.
During its 175-year history Longines has worked out a successful industrial approach to the art of watchmaking. The company concentrated on the construction and fabrication of watch calibers and movements.
The brand has documented this remarkable part of its history in the voluminous book, published to pay tribute to its 175-th anniversary. The book is entitled At the Heart of an Industrial Vocation - Longines Watch Movements (1832-2007) - Tradition, Know-how, Innovation. The author of the book is a young historian, Patrick Linder, from the University of Neuchatel. More than 600 pages describe every stage of the organization and rationalization of the Longines watch production.
The Longines legendary 20H caliber became the first simple chronograph introduced in 1878. The single-pushbutton chronograph comprises a central seconds hand that becomes linked to the movement after pushing the winding stem once. One more push makes the hand stop, and the hand returns to zero after a third push.
Longines has created over 500 calibers. According to Nick Hayek Jr., future of Longines is in volume, with watches characterized by an appealing design, affordable price, and top quality.
During the Longines anniversary celebrations, Nick Hayek Jr. was joined by Walter von Kaenel, the CEO of Longines, who accentuated that Longines is one of the brands with the fastest growth in the Swatch Group. Longines has all the chances to become the third largest brand in the group.
Longines is going to expand its range of sports watches. The brand is quite experienced in the field. Already in 1878, the company started creating links to the sports world, having produced its first simple chronograph that incorporated the 20H movement.
Longines has been a part of the timing history since the first Olympic Games held in 1896, in Athens. The company also ran experiments with a 'cut thread' timing technique in 1912, in Switzerland. In 1952, Longines developed the Autogines system that allowed to link a control image with measured time. In 1960, the company managed to combine imaging and timing.
Longines is also related to the sports world via a number of particular areas:
- Speed: Longines was responsible for timing speed records on the ocean and on land, with the celebrated Bluebird and a successful partnership with Ferrari as the official timer of the F1 in the period of 1982-1992;
- Aviation: The company joined efforts with Charles Lindbergh in 1927;
- Underwater diving: In 1953, Longines took part in the dives to 3,150 meters by the Trieste bathyscaphe. It also partnered with Captain Cousteau;
- Polar exploration: The company cooperated with Byrd and Amundsen.
The new collections of Longines sports watches are available along thematic lines:
- Faster - the automatic chronographs entering the Grande Vitesse collection;
- Further - the refined chronographs from the Admiral and Conquest collections;
- Higher - the watches of classic style paying tribute to Lindbergh;
- Deeper - the Hydro Conquest and Legend Diver watch collections.
To mark its 175th Anniversary, Longines has developed two special timepieces. The first watch is the Longines 175 Diamonds. The majestic ladies' watch commemorates the occasion with the number of diamonds and its distinctively retro look.
The second anniversary timepiece is a new watch to join the Master Collection. The Master Collection Retrograde has incorporated a new automatic mechanical caliber developed exclusively for the brand by ETA.
The steel watch is housed in 41-mm or 44-mm case. It is equipped with three to four retrograde functions according to the model: day, date, and second time zone provided with a 24-hour scale with added seconds. The timepiece offers supreme readability and nice classic finishing.