Longines
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Longines is a watch company founded by Ernest Francillon at Saint-Imier, Switzerland. Its origins can be traced back to 1830s and it currently holds the oldest registered logo for a watch company (a winged hourglass). Longines is currently owned by the Swatch Group.
Longines is famous for its 'Aviators' watches. The director of Longines was a personal friend of Charles Lindbergh ; after his transatlantic flight, Lindbergh designed a pilot watch to help with air navigation. The watch was actually built to his specifications, and is still produced today.
It is said that Albert Einstein used a Longines pocket watch. Longines watches have been worn by many celebrities, including Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, Aishwarya Rai, Billy Zane and Harry Connick Jr.
Contents |
[edit] Brief History
The beginning of Longines took place in 1832, when Auguste Agassiz found a job in a small Swiss town of Saint-Imier. He worked at Comptoir horloger Raiguel Jeune - a trader of watch parts. In 1833 he and two of his associates set up a company named Comptoir Raiguel Jeue & Cie. In 1847 Agassiz became the only owner of the company. In 1852, Agassiz' nephew Ernest Francillon joined the company and in 1862 overtook it from his uncle. He renamed it into Ancienne Maison Auguste Agassiz, Ernest Francillon, Successeur.
In 1866, Francillon bought two pieces of land near Les Longines. Here he built a factory, which gathered the entire production under one roof. The first Longines movement was created in 1867. Francillon was the first watchmaker to introduce the winding crown. All watches before that where wound with a key. The same year Ernest Francillon returned from the World's Fair in Paris with a bronze medal for this novelty watch.
In 1880, on the 19th of July the Longines brand and logo were registered at the Swiss Federal Office of Intellectual Property.
After the great success of wrist watches at the beginning of the 20th century, the Longines factory underwent a massive reorganization of methods of production during the 1920s and 30s. In 1912 began a close partnership between Longines and gymnastics. The result of this partnership was the introduction of automatic timing. In 1927 Longines has timed the first transatlantic flight, which lasted 33 hours and 30 minutes.
In the middle of the 20th century Longines has taken part in the rise of feminine aviation, with Amelia Earhart, has marked the appearance of the first in-house self-winding movement and has won a series of awards. Among those awards there were four Diamonds-International Academy Awards and Prix d'Honneur of Lausanne. In the mid 1930's Longines has patented the flyback chronograph.
In the 1970s Longines has experienced a breakthrough in development and production. There were advances in performance of the watches and in their aesthetic features. In 1980s there were a series of ultra-thin designs, which followed another world record of Longines in 1960 - the thinnest electromagnetic watch - it was just 1,98 mm thick.
In [[1982] the manufactory issued a collection dedicated to the new partnership of Longines and Ferrari Formula 1 Team. In 1984 Longines started developing high precision mechanical watches, which were 5 to 10 times more precise than the quartz movements.
On 19th February 2001 Longines there was produced the 30 Millionth watch at the manufactory. In 2002 the brand celebrated the 170th year of the flying hourglass logo, the logo of the brand, which is the oldest registered trademark in haute horlogerie.
[edit] Baseball scoreboard clocks
The LONGINES name was once conspicuously displayed above the analog clocks topping many scoreboards in stadiums and baseball parks, in the days before the time of day was kept digitally. A couple notable examples were the scoreboard clock at Yankee Stadium before the stadium was remodeled during the early 1970s, and the scoreboard at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh throughout many of its later years. The Longines logo was given much publicity as Bill Mazeroski's 1960 World Series-winning home run was hit directly above the famous sign.
[edit] Trivia
- The company's motto is "Elegance is an attitude."
- According to the official site, the name derives from the location in which the company's first factory was built: "On the right bank of the Suze river near a place called Les Longines (meaning 'long and narrow fields' in the dialectal French of the area)."
[edit] External links
 |
This corporation or company article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
