With a
long and prestigious history Longines is one of the world’s premier watch manufacturers. From its early beginning
as a small company in St. Imier to today’s multi-national
supplier of watches world wide the company has experienced
many notable events and hallmarks.
The first of these many awards was a bronze medal at the 1885
Universal Exhibition in Antwerp where they were awarded where
they won the Grand Prix award. This was followed by additional
Grand Prix awards in 1889, 1900, 1906, 19141925, 1926 and 1929.
To date Longines is the holder of 10 Grand Prix medals and
28 Gold Medals more than any other manufacturer.
The company has also been associated with various events including
the performing arts, gymnastics and equestrian sports and has
had ambassadors such as Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and
Harry Connick, Jr. just to name a few.
At one time the company was known as Longines Wittnauer and
many people assume that the models are synonymous. In truth
they were not and the movements of each company was distinct
and not interchangeable.
A. Wittnauer was in fact the exclusive sales agent for Longines
from 1880 to 1994. In 1936 A. Wittnauer sold the company to
Longines and this is how the name Longines Wittnauer was formed.
In 1994 the partnership was dissolved after an association
of 114 years.
Longines
has an extensive collection of time pieces for men and women.
In fact the collection is so extensive
that not
all models are shown on their official web site. The collections
include but are not limited to the Dolce Vita, the LongoMare,
the Lindbergh and the Heritage. Some of their better known
pieces are the Lindbergh air navigation watch; the Flore Marine
of the 1970’s the Feuille d'Or which became the slimmest
watch in the world in 1979.
In September 1994 Longines became part of The Swatch Group,
a luxury watch company which holds title to many other watch
brands including Hamilton, Omega and Tissot. The brand remains
one of the best selling luxury watches and is always updating
their collections and releasing new models.
Longines Replica Watches - A Brief History
The history
of the Longines Company begins in St. Imier in the Swiss
mountains in 1833 when a young
man known as Auguste
Agassiz went into partnership with Florian More and Henri Raiguel
to form a company known as the Comptoir Raiguel Jeune & Cie.
In time one of Auguste’s sisters married Charles-Marc
Francillon and bore him a son called Ernest.
Over the ensuing years the other two partners left the business
and when Auguste retired in 1862 it was his nephew Ernest who
took over the business. In 1866 Ernest acquired two parcels
of land on the outskirts of St. Imier and built the first Longines
factory. The business of watch making had until this time been
mostly a cottage industry. The building of this factory allowed
Ernest to consolidate all of the company workers under one
roof for the first time.
In 1867 Longines broke with the long tradition of key wound
time pieces and began production on the first watch to feature
a crown wound movement and setting mechanism. When Ernest presented
this piece at the 1867 Universal Exhibition in Paris it was
awarded the bronze medal.
In 1880 the brand name Longines and its winged hour glass
logo was officially registered in Switzerland. During the next
few years the brand won many awards including its first Grand
Prix at the Universal Exhibition in Antwerp in 1885. This Grand
Prix was but one of many to follow and to date the brand has
won 28 Gold Medals.
Many other historical events occurred over the ensuing years
including a partnership that led to the introduction of automatic
timing at the 1912 Swiss Federal Gymnastics Meet; the first
Longines advertising in 1928 and the development of an air
navigation watch by Charles Lindbergh in 1931.
Like many
other manufacturers Longines was taken aback by the advent
of the quartz watch in the 1970’s.
The company rebounded however with the creation of time pieces
such as
the Flore Marine, the Vagues and the Kleopatra all of which
won the coveted Golden Rose of Baden-Baden award.
In February of 2001 Longines celebrated the production of
their 30 millionth watch and in 2003 the 125th anniversary
of the company. With their rich history and amazing time pieces
Longines is one of the most respected names in watch making.
Longines Watch Story
The Longines
story starts back in 1832 when Auguste Agassiz arrived in
Saint-Imier and entered the "Comptoir horloger
Raiguel Jeune". One year later, he founded the "Comptoir
Raiguel Jeune & Cie" together with Florian Morel and
Henri Raiguel. One of Auguste's sisters married Charles-Marc
Francillon, a shopkeeper from Lausanne and in 1834 they had
a son, Ernest Francillon.
When Henri
Raiguel retired from his functions in 1838, Auguste Agassiz
and Florian Morel became the owners
of the "Comptoir
Agassiz & Cie", until Agassiz became in 1847 the sole
owner. A few years later, in 1852, his nephew, Ernest Francillon,
entered the company to finally become his uncle's successor
in 1862. The new company "Ancienne Maison Auguste Agassiz,
Ernest Francillon, Successeur" was born. At that time
watchmaking in the area used the skills of people working outside
the "comptoir d'etablissage", often at home.
In 1866,
Auguste's nephew, Ernest Francillon, bought two plots of
land on the right bank of the river Suze
at the place called "Les
Longines" and brought all of the watchmaking skills under
one roof - this was the first "Longines factory".
With the
inauguration of the new factory in 1867, the production of
the first Longines movement, the
L20A, commenced. At that
time, watches used to be wound by means of a key. The Longines
watch however broke with these traditional watchmaking methods
having a "lever" movement which was wound and the
time set by means of the crown. It was Ernest Francillon himself
who went to Paris to present this watch at the 1867 Universal
Exhibition. He returned to Saint-Imier with a bronze medal.
Ever since his first watch in 1867, Francillon engraved a
winged hourglass on all Longines movements. In his battle against
counterfeits, he already in 1874 sent out his first warning
to all Longines customers.
170 Years of Elegance in Watchmaking
Never
modified, continually used, constantly updated, the world's
oldest registered brand name in watchmaking
- Longines,
with its winged hourglass logo - enters the year 2002 with
elegance, launching "Les Elegantes", a commemorative
collection of three vintage jewelry watches during a party,
celebrating 170 years of elegance at the Pavillon Ledoyen,
located at the famous Champs Elysees. At the very same occasion
Longines presents its ambassadors of elegance; Indian actress
Aishwarya Rai, Italian actress Chiara Muti, Chinese actress
Carina Lau, American actor Billy Zane and Russian actor Oleg
Menshikov.
