Brand name: Longines

Owned by: Swatchgroup

Country: Switzerland

Founded: 1832

Founder: Auguste Agassiz, Henri Raiguel & Florian Morel

Website: www.longines.ch

Longines Watch Company was started in 1832 by Auguste Agassiz. Agassiz opened a workshop in St Imier, Switzerland. He operated what today would be called a "Home Business". Workers would work on watches out of thier own homes, whigh Agassiz would later sell. Sometime between the years of 1854 and 1866 Agassiz handed down over the operation of the watchmaking business to his nephew Ernest Francillon. Realizing the lack of consistant quality coming from the manufacture of watches in so many locations, Francillon soon built a factory in Les Longines near St. Imier and consolidated all of the areas watchmaking under one roof. The Longines name was born.

The company began producing chronographs in 1879. They later produced aviator watches and cockpit instruments. The company registered its "Winged Hourglass" trademark in May of 1890. In 1912 the company produced the first automatic timekeeping device. From that day Longines has long been associated with time-keeping at major sporting events. In the 1950's Longines purchased the Wittnauer watch company and marketed a number of very similar lines of watches in the US under both brand names.

Longines watches are highly collectable. The classic designs are fantastic. The accuracy and reliability is amazing, and the parts are readily available.

Today Longines is a member of Swatch Group Ltd, the world?s leading watch manufacturer and marketer, with no fewer than 157 production sites in Switzerland.

On the 19th of July 1880 at 11:00 am Ernest Francillon registered at the Federal Office of Intellectual Property under patent number 118 and 119 the brand Longines and its original logo, featuring the winged hourglass. The Longines trademark was first registered, under patent number 2684, at 4:00 pm on 27th of May 1889 and under patent number 14 on the 27th of March 1893 at the International Office of Intellectual Property (today the WIPO, World Intellectual Property Organizaton). International exhibitions In 1885, Longines won its first "Grand Prix" at an international exhibition in Antwerp. Further success followed in Brussels (1897), Paris (1889, 1900 and 1925), Milan (1906), Genoa (1914), Berne (1914), Philadelphia (1926) and Barcelona (1929). Longines' record of ten "Grand Prix" and 28 "Medailles d'Or" has never been equaled by any other watch manufacturer.

During the 1920s and 30s Longines' accumulated design experience and practical new movement shapes gave rise to a new generation of Longines watches featuring an Art Deco geometry in a trim rectangular or square case. These models featured in 1928 in the first Longines advertising, mentioning "Elegance" as a unique sales proposition. In that period Longines launched three of its most elegant vintage watches, enhanced with diamonds and sapphires, which were many years later re-introduced in a special limited edition in order to celebrate Longines' 170 years of elegance in watchmaking. The first non-stop transatlantic flight timed by Longines In 1927 Charles A. Lindbergh made the first non-stop transatlantic solo flight from New York to Paris which was timed by Longines. He then designed a new instrument for Longines that would become the hour-angle air navigation watch.

The creation of the caliber L22A in 1945 marked the birth of the men's automatic movement by Longines. The first ladies' automatic movement to be manufactured by Longines, the caliber L14.16, was produced in 1956.

When the quartz revolution in the 1970s changed the industry forever, it took some time for designers, and of course their employers, to recover from an "everything is possible" mentality and return to their primary role, creating beauty on the wrist. The Longines designers succeeded - with "Flore Marine" (1970), "Vagues" (1970), "Kleopatra" (1975) and "Volubilis" (1978). All four of them won a Golden Rose of Baden Baden. Design breakthroughs Paris based French designer Serge Manzon created in 1972 especially for Longines a series of watches in silver. These avantgarde designs still are a source of inspiration for many watch manufacturers. One year later, Longines once more got awarded with a design prize (Prix de la Ville de Gen?e) for its model "Prototype". Entrance in equestrian sports At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Longines timed for the first time the show jumping competition. This event marked the start of a long and intense relationship between the elegant equestrian sports and Longines, resulting with the first awarding of the "Longines Prize for Elegance" in equestrian at the Jumping International de Cannes in the year 2000. Technical advances support aesthetic developments Already in 1960 Longines broke all records by presenting the thinnest electromagnetic watch ever. Nineteen years later in 1979 the Longines "Feuille d'Or" models (caliber L795) broke the two-millimeter barrier to become the world's thinnest watch at an astonishing 1.98 mm overall. The secret: a quartz movement totally integrated into the case.

Based upon the design on the Agassiz" collection in gold, Longines launched in 1990 its La Grande Classique de Longines : a collection of ultrathin designs in stainless steel. " L'El?ance du temps depuis 1832 " With the introduction of the famous Longines DolceVita collection, based upon Longines models from the 1920s and 1930, Longines launched in 1997 its slogan "L'El?ance du temps depuis 1832". With its Longines DolceVita chronograph watch, Longines won in 1999 the prestigious French prize "Cadran d'Or" in the category "Men's luxury watches".

Designed as a salute to feminine elegance, Longines launched in 2001 the Longines DolceVita Diamond Collections. During the gala evening for the launch of this prestigious collection in Milan, Italy, Longines awarded its first Prize for Elegance outside the world of sports to Alessandra Ferri, Lamberto Sposini and Sergio Loro Piana. 30 Millionth Longines Watch On February 19, 2001, Longines celebrated its 30 Millionth Longines Watch

Model names: Admiral, Avigation, Belle Arti, Christobal Columbus, Cleopatra, Comet, Conquest, Dolce Vita, Elegance, Éphéméride, Evidenza , Flagship, La Grande Classique, Golden Wing, Lindbergh, Lungo Mare, Master, Nonius Chronograph, Olympic, Oposition, Spirit Angle Hour, Sport Chief, Time Change, Ultra Quartz, Ultra-chron, Ultronic, Weems