If you know a thing or two about watches, you must certainly have heard from the brand Longines. Longines is one of the oldest watch brands that is still active today. The brand was founded in 1832, and is today more popular than it has ever been. Even though they currently are part of the Swatch group, they have had an independent status for over a century. Below, you can find 5 facts you did not know about Longines.
Longines is the watch brand with the oldest trademark
Brand love rebranding. Being called ‘old-fashioned’ might be one of the worst labels a brand can receive. Even though Longines has always been relevant, they also have continued to use their famous winged hourglass logo since 1867. The style of the logo has of course changed a few times, but the famous winged hourglass has always been part of the signature logo. This has made them very recognizable.
Longines HQ is still in the same place as it was in 1832
When you start a small business, you usually don’t start in a huge industrial area. Most businesses move to a more suitable area once they start growing.
Longines is one of the few brands (if not the only brand) who did not relocate. They are still active in the same Swiss village Saint-Imier, as when they started in 1832.
Longines revolutionized air travel
Charles August Lindenberg was an American/Swedish aviator, military officer and politician.
In 1927, Lindenbergh flew across the North Atlantic in one flight. Back then, this was a task only reserved for the best and most skilled pilots. Even the most experienced pilots could easily get lost, since planes had very few tools to navigate. Pilots had to use the sun, their compass and their gut feeling to navigate.
Lindenbergh teamed up with Longines to create the Lindenbergh Hour Angle watch. This watch helped pilots to calculate their precise location by using longitude and latitude.
Because of this tool, air travel was not only reserved for the military anymore. The tool made it much easier to calculate the location without upgrading your airplane. This made it easier and more accessible for ‘everyday people’ to start playing around with small aircrafts.
Albert Einstein was a Longines fan & collector
Few people know this, but Albert Einstein was a big watch fanatic.
It is known that Einstein bought at least two Longines watches for himself. One can be seen in the Bern Historical Museum in Switzerland, the other was auctioned for $596,000 in 2008.
Next to his Longines collection, Einstein also owned a Patek Philippe pocket watch. Patek Philippe actually had an advertisement in 1980 saying ‘Einstein’s timepiece was a Patek Philippe’ showing a Patek Philippe Eclipse, while in fact he only owned a pocket watch. False information or clever choice of words?
Longines once had the record of thinnest watch
In the late seventies, there was a race between Swiss luxury watchmakers to produce the thinnest watch. Longines took the crown in 1979 with a 1.98mm Feuille D’Or (gold leaf in French)
The Feuille D’Or was the first watch ever to be thinner than 2mm. Forty years later, many brands still struggle to make watches thinner than 2mm.
Today, the quest for the thinnest quartz watch has lost its popularity, but is taken over for the quest for the thinnest automatic watch. The Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Concept currently holds the crown. The Altiplano Ultimate concept is only 2mm and was released in 2018.
Le Chiffre’s Longines Evidenza Chronograph
Longines is a Bond watc
All right, this title might be misleading. James Bond never actually wore a Longines. That prestigious title is mainly reserved for Omega, but Longines can be seen in the latest three James Bond movies: Casino Royal, Skyfall and Spectre.
In Casino Royale, a Longines Evidenza Chronograph can be seen on Le Chiffre’s wrist while playing poker.
Another Evidenza can be seen in Skyfall on the wrist of Doctor Hall, the MI6 psychologist who had to test 007 to see he was fit for duty again.
The assassin from the train-fight in the same movie fights for his life wearing a Legend Diver with a black strap. If you have seen the movie, you know things did not end well for the assassin, nor for the watch .
In the last movie, M (Ralph Fiennes, even though M will always be Dame Judy Dench in our hearts) wears a Longines Conquest Heritage.
