To name a brand after a ‘long meadow’ sounds just as fairytale-like as the history of the watch brand Longines. The brand from the idyllic village ‘Les Longines’ in Saint-Imier literally means ‘long meadow’. Established in 1832 by Auguste Agassiz, the brand has headed skywards just as consistently as the long meadow-grass of the lush green Jura-valley. Today, around 1.5 million watches leave the factory every year. In 2018, Longines celebrated the 50 millionth watch that was produced since its founding.
The founders – Auguste Agassiz and Ernest Francillon.
In the beginning however, everything was different. In the founding year 1832, the trading office by Auguste Agassiz and his two partners was named ‘Agassiz & Co.’. At the time, they produced timepieces under the ‘établissage’ system, whereby watchmakers worked at home and supplied their products to the trading offices. Agassiz was responsible for the assembly and sales of the watches. Only in 1850, when Agassiz nephew Ernest Francillon took over the running of the office, he implemented step by step all manufacturing methods in one area.
The factory in Saint-Imier around 1911.
He bought two adjoining pieces of land on the right bank of the river Suze, which runs through the St. Imier valley and in 1867, he built the factory Longines. As the village was called ‘Les Longines’, he decided to change the name of the brand accordingly. Having a new brand name, he also established a new logo. The winged hour glass was born – however, it was only patented a trademark in 1889 and is the oldest brand name still in use, unchanged, today. Also in 1867, Francillon introduced his first in-house movement – the 20-line calibre 20A with anchor escapement, pendant winding and setting mechanism. Only recently, a collector has found the oldest known Longines watch. A silver pocket watch with the serial number 183 also from 1867.
Inside the factory in Saint-Imier around 1911.
This can only be reconstructed in detail, as Longines keeps record of ever numbering since 1867. Every timepiece has a serial number that was documented in so called ‘établissage’-books until 1969. In the 1970s and 1980s they were filed on microfiches and cassettes and digitalized in the 1990s until now. In the company’s own database LEA (Longines Eletronic Archives) they were able to carefully examine every model – and that was literally necessary to validate the genuineness of Longines watches, because to combat counterfeit products, Longines engraved the distinctive winged hour glass onto the movement. Until the 1950s by the way, it was only the lettering Longines that was visible on the dial.
The business was thriving. In 1911, Longines already employed 1100 people and sold watches worldwide. The brand stands for simple and elegant timepieces that ventures technical progress and strongly emphasises on quality. It was always all about following their ideology in the long term, Francillon was not affected by short term trends. It paid off. In 1919, Longines became the official supplier for the ‘International Aeronautical Federation’ and developed highly accurate and reliable navigation instruments. More milestones followed, like the Weems Second-Setting watch from 1927 with the rotating disc that was first produced by Longines and enabled the Pilots to synchronise the second counter with a GMT signal – later in the 1960s the mechanism was also used by divers. After his famous non-stop solo flight over the North Atlantic, Charles A. Lindbergh assigned Longines in 1931 to produce an ‘Hour Angle Watch’, based on the model Weems created in 1927. And in 1945, Longines launched its first self-winding movement calibre 22A.
Inside the factory in Saint-Imier around 1937.
Until then, nothing really stood in the way for a continuous upswing. But suddenly in the 1970s the quartz crisis paralysed the Swiss watch industry and also Longines. Only with the acquisition by the Swatch Group (called SMH that time) in 1983 and due to the rich legacy of the well-established watch brand Longines, they were able to build a strong foundation for a profitable future. From now on, movements were manufactured by the subsidiary ETA, some exclusively for Longines. The brand instead focused on preserving the heritage and values that are reflected in the watch collections but also by their professional collaborations. Hence, we mainly link Longines to equestrian- and skiing-sports and tennis – the brand was official partner of the French Open in Roland-Garros for many years. In terms of equestrian sports, Longines is already engaged since 1878 when they launched their first sports-chronograph (calibre 20H) for the timekeeping on the course. It had an image of a jockey with horse engraved into the case.
Inside the factory of Longines
ETA instead looks after the technical progress and continuously modifies the (partly exclusive) movements. In 2009, Longines presented a new column wheel chronograph movement (calibre L688) and in 2012, they introduced a single push-piece chronograph with column wheel (calibre L788), both inspired from the original calibre 20H, but modified to fit a wristband-chronograph.
The oldest known Longines watch – serial number 183 from 1867.
Beneath the long meadow, the company steadily grows. Today, it houses the headquarter of the Compagnie des Montres Longines Francillon S.A., its workshops and a museum that traces the rich history of the brand.
The oldest known Longines watch – serial number 183 from 1867.
In order to continue filling this museum with knowledge and to pay tribute to the pieces from the past, Longines is currently looking for the oldest watch in Germany. Should you have a vintage Longines of any kind on your wrist, in a box or on your garret, you should consider uploading an image and the serial number until end of April on www.longines.com/oldestwatch.
If Christoph Grainger-Herr had to stereotype the average IWC customer, he might catch himself picking his own name. Not out of sheer vanity, but because the young CEO embodies and leads the brand with so much genuine dedication, and has been doing so for just over two years. The trained architect has been with the brand for over…
When it comes to expanding Parmigiani Fleurier's clientele, it seems it's not all about fast and furious growth. Recently installed CEO Guido Terreni, leading the manufacture since the start of 2021, evidently prides himself upon creating a customer base that is not necessarily far-reaching, but rather fits with the company's values. "We are choosing an…
At Watches and Wonders 2025, A. Lange & Söhne is unveiling the sportily elegant Odysseus in a 750-grade Honeygold case for the first time, pairing it with a rich brown dial. With this release, the Honeygold model becomes the fourth variant in Lange’s sixth watch family, alongside the Lange 1, Saxonia, 1815, Richard Lange, and…
In the middle of the last century, a hype around chronograph watches emerged. Over the course of time, the wrist stop-watches have received nicknames like BiCompax or TriCompax, whereas these descriptions did not stand for the number of sub-dials, but for the number of functions. However: If there was a third sub-dial placed on the…
The trend for blue watches has been around for a while now. After all, blue is the favourite colour of most men and in terms of fashion, blue is always sophisticated and sporty at the same time. As there seems to be a strong demand, the trend lives on within most brands collections. Whereas blue…
It seems that over the last decade, Swiss watch manufacturers have been taking a leaf or two out of the tech companies’ books. As well as getting more sophisticated, their new releases seem to be getting larger in diameter almost on an annual basis. So much so with wristwatches that the more traditional of collectors…
The history of Cartier's world-renowned horological creations spans well over a century. However, the Cartier Ballon Bleu de Cartier is still a relatively new addition. Since its release in the 2000s, it's become one of the most-loved unisex watches out there – particularly for women looking to break away from stagnant, over-marketed watch designs. As…
This article is going to take a little trip back into the past. We are going to head back about 40 years – more specifically, to the year 1972. An excellent designer by the name of Gerald Genta had just made a name for himself in the watch industry. Almost overnight, he had dreamt up…
Over at Schaffhausen, one tends to focus on just one collection each year. Last year it was the Portugieser line, which underwent both a revision and extension. This year, however, another IWC favourite is in the limelight; pilot's watches. These models have always enjoyed a huge level of popularity at IWC – both with design-orientated…
The last couple of years have been quiet for Carl F. Bucherer’s Manero Flyback. Now, the chronograph is back, and, it seems, better than ever. It was in 2016 that the Manero collection first introduced a new series of watches featuring a chronograph movement with a flyback function. Then, at Baselworld 2017, three models equipped…
Anyone with a passion for A. Lange & Söhne's mechanical watches will know of Dutchman Anthony de Haas as well as CEO Wilhelm Schmid. As Director of Product Development, he is personally responsible for many of the brand's 72 in-house movements. Whether it was the Zeitwerk, Grand Complication or the first steel watch Odysseus, he…
In 1968, the Apollo 8 mission transmitted images to Earth that were so impressive that they triggered a metaphysical shiver across the globe. 'Earthrise', the image shot on 24 December 1968 during the fourth of ten planned orbits of the moon, not only made it clear that we humans had set foot on another celestial…
In 2017, OMEGA introduced a series of new watches from their popular Seamaster Aqua Terra collection. To pay a special tribute to them, OMEGA hosted a glamorous gala-dinner at the prestige Palazzo Pisani Moretta in Venice, the place where the Seamaster history began. The Palazzo Pisani Moretta in Venice Not everyone is aware of the…