Longines
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Compagnie des Montres Longines | |
 |
|
| Type | Member of the Swatch group |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1832 |
| Headquarters | Saint-Imier, Switzerland |
| Key people | Walter von Känel, President |
| Industry | Watch manufacturing |
| Products | Wristwatches, timing devices/systems |
| Slogan | Elegance is an attitude |
| Website | www.longines.com |
Longines is a watch company founded by Ernest Francillon at Saint-Imier, Switzerland. Its origins can be traced back to the 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. One 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 took it over from his uncle. He renamed it as 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 Longines began a close partnership with gymnastics as the official timekeeper for the 1912 Swiss Federal Gymnastics Meet in Basel, Switzerland. The result of this partnership was the introduction of automatic timing.
In 1927 Longines timed the first transatlantic flight, which lasted 33 hours and 30 minutes. In the middle of the 20th century Longines was part of the rise of feminine aviation, with Amelia Earhart who was another famous wearer of the brand.
This period also marked the appearance of the first in-house self-winding movement watches and the company won several prestegious awards. Among those awards there were four Diamonds-International Academy Awards and the Prix d'Honneur of Lausanne. In the mid 1930's Longines patented the flyback chronograph.
In the 1970s Longines experienced a breakthrough in development and production. There were advances in performance of the watches and their appearance continued to change. 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 factory 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 produced the 30 millionth watch at their factory. In 2002 the brand celebrated the 170th year of the flying hourglass logo, 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 Crosley Field in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Longines logo was given much publicity as Bill Mazeroski's 1960 World Series-winning home run was hit directly above a Longines sign at Forbes Field.
[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. |
