In 2007, the luxury watch company Longines celebrated its 175th anniversary. It was a milestone marking a rich history of watch making.
Logines in the Early 1800s
Logines evolution into a respected name in luxury watches and chronographs began in 1832. August Agassiz took a job in the hamlet of Saint-Imier, a French speaking village in Switzerland, with a comptoir, a trader of watch parts. In 1833, Auguste and two associates founded Comptoir Raiguel Jeue & Cie, a company based on the business model of people making watch parts in their homes from rough parts delivered by a jobber, who then returned to pick up and pay for the finished products.
Logines in the 1900s
At the turn of the century, an Arctic explorer carried a Longines timepiece to the North Pole. Later on, together with a company director, Charles Lindbergh designed a pilot watch for air navigation after his flight across the Atlantic. These aviator watches are still produced today. In 1912, the very first automatic timekeeping was conducted by Longines at the Federal Gymnastics at Basel
Logines, 1970-1980
In 1972, Logines became the first to use an LCD display. Advances were made in the performance and appearance of the watches. The year 1980 brought ultra-thin designs with a quartz watch that was just 1.98mm in thickness. In the early 1980s, Logines became a Swatch group company.
Logines in the 21st Century
Through the years, Logines developed it’s reputation as a timekeeper for sports. They were used at 14 Olympic games beginning at Oslo in 1952. Since 2007, Logines has been the official timekeeper of the French Open and the Kremlin Cup. In 2009, they were adopted as timekeepers by the Japan Open Tennis Championships. They have now timed at least 31 Tours de France.
For close to two centuries now, Logine timepieces have been finding their way into markets worldwide. Enjoy browsing these five luxury timepieces from Logine’s Saint- Imier Collection.
This Caliber L595 watch is stainless steel and 18 K pink gold. It has a round dial of mother of pearl and is set with 60 top Wesselton VVS diamonds.
The Ambassador L688 has self-winding mechanical column wheel chronograph movement. Functions are hours, minutes, small second at 9 o’clock and date.
The self-winding Caliber L619 is black stainless steel with scratch resistant sapphire crystal. The band is black alligator.
The Caliber L707 features four retrograde functions and moon phase. It is silver stainless steel with blued steel hands. The band is brown alligator.
The Caliber L559 is a stainless steel case with white mother of pearl dial and white alligator band.
Rebecca M for Raymond Lee Jewelers, South Florida’s premiere source for buying and selling luxury watches and designer jewelry.