Longines Watches

[Product selection coming soon]

Longines is a luxury watch company founded by Ernest Francillon at Saint-Imier, Switzerland. Its origins can be traced back to the 1830s and it currently holds the oldest registered logo for a watch company (a winged hourglass). Longines is currently owned by the Swatch Group.

Longines is famous for its 'Aviators' watches. One director of Longines was a personal friend of Charles Lindbergh; after his transatlantic flight, Lindbergh designed a pilot watch to help with air navigation. The watch was actually built to his specifications, and is still produced today.

Auguste Agassiz, a young merchant, moved to St Imier in Switzerland, in 1832. He operated what today would have been known as a virtual corporation using home-workers to create watches that he sold.

In 1854 he handed responsibility of the business to his nephew, Ernest Francillon.

He realised that outsourcing did not produce consistency of quality. He built a factory in Les Longines. It started producing chronographs in 1879. In 1912 the company produced the first automatic timekeeping device - the wire cutting system. From that day Longines has long been associated with time-keeping at major sporting events.
Wristwatches have been produced since 1910. Famous range includes the Conquest with the Conquest GMT which with a rotating bezel can be adjusted to show the time in any time zone.