Vintage Watches

Longines The World's Most Honored Watch. In 1877, Longines won the first its 10 World's Fair grand prizes and 28 gold medals. In 1899, the Duke of Abbruzi completed a successful Arctic Ocean expedition with Longines chronometers used as instrumentation.

Longines Pocket Watches – The Adventurer’s Watch. By Mr Goldsmith.

If you consider yourself an adventurer, a Longines Pocket Watch is the watch for you. In fact, Longines Pocket Watches have long been the choice for many famous, infamous, and completely unknown explorers for almost two hundred years, but few people understand why this is the case.

It all started in 1889, with an Italian explorer, Luigi Amedeo. You may not have heard of him – he tried to venture to the North Pole. He failed, which may be why he isn’t a household name. However, at the onset of his failed trip, he was given five chronometers by Longines. Even though he failed in his endeavor, somehow, this made the Longines Pocket Watch the watch of choice for adventurers everywhere.[..Read More..]

Browse the widest range of Longines pocket watches at the lowest prices.

This wasn’t the last foray into the Northern regions for Longines Pocket Watches. In 1904, when the United States Navy set out to explore the North Pole, Longines again provided chronometers. While the United States Navy also failed to reach the North Pole, the Longines Pocket Watch was again touted as the chosen watch of adventurers. Ironically, it was Robert Peary who first made it to the North Pole, in 1909 – and he was not in possession of a Longines Pocket Watch when he arrived.

In spite of this, Longines continued to design and produce watches that would hold up to the rough and tumble world of adventurers everywhere. During the First World War, Longines manufactured watches that were suitable for soldiers – with shrapnel covers. During this time, Longines Pocket Watches were being used everywhere – on land, in the air, and on the sea– in war zones and on sporting fields.

Longines Pocket Watches were definitely the watch of choice for aviators. Back in 1889, Longines couldn’t know that finding ways around problems such as moisture, cold temperatures, and magnetism problems would be beneficial a couple of decades later – but his knowledge and skill in those problem areas certainly paid off, when the same problems occurred in airplanes.

By the time that the Second World War came about, Longines was the sole producer of European military issue watches. But watches designed for sports would be the bread and butter for Longines Pocket Watches in the 1930s and 1940s.

In this instance, what made Longines Pocket Watches so desirable was that Longines designed and manufactured his own chronographs, while other watch makers did not. This not only made his watches unique then, but today, to collectors, they are highly coveted because of that uniqueness. Today, collectors pay thousands of dollars to obtain Antique Longines Pocket Watches.

While Longines Pocket Watches have a long and solid history in the world of adventurers, today’s adventurers are still able to buy quality Longines watches, with the features that are important to adventurers – either pocket watches or the wrist watches are available – and they are still considered the watch of choice for adventurers, explorers, and sports enthusiasts everywhere – and if you aren’t overly adventurous, a Longines Pocket Watch will still work beautifully for you as well.