Swiss watch maker Longines has been among the many brands in recent years to dive deeply into the “heritage reissue” well. This time, they have released a vintage-inspired pilot’s watch which pays tribute to their longstanding history with aviation. The Longines Avigation BigEye features aesthetics borrowed from several of their vintage aviation and military pieces as well as modern watchmaking technology including a column wheel chronograph caliber, a highly domed, anti-reflective sapphire crystal, and Super-LumiNova coating for the hour markers and hands.
Designed to complement the ever growing Longines Watches Online Store Replica Heritage collection, the new Longines Avigation BigEye is in keeping with Longines’ recent penchant for gently updating historical models while keeping the design language much the same. In this case, the Longines Museum’s recent acquisition of a pilot’s watch they produced in the 1930s provided the impetus for the new model, and the new dial shares certain design cues with its predecessor.
The semi-glossy black dial is a fairly straightforward and traditional aviation design with Super-LumiNova-coated Arabic hour markers and bead-blasted, rhodium-plated hands which should be familiar to Longines Watches In Dubai Replica fans. A running seconds register sits at 9 o’clock while a twelve hour counter rests at the 6 o’clock position. An oversized thirty minute sub dial at 3 o’clock serves as the focal point for the dial, and the source of the BigEye name. Refreshingly, no date window has been inserted where it doesn’t belong and the dial is a clean and highly legible affair.
Aviation watches are known for large, utilitarian cases and the Longines Watches Bahrain Replica Avigation BigEye’s case is pure tool watch, though not terribly large by today’s standards at a reasonable 41mm in width. Case surfaces are mostly brushed with the exception of the narrow, highly polished bezel sitting just beneath the well-executed highly domed and anti-reflective coated crystal. The polished crown and pushers are also oversized as an homage to the oversized controls of pilot’s watches of years past where the design was intended to make for easy use with heavy flyer’s gloves. Somewhat surprisingly, despite the intricate movement ticking within, Longines have foregone an exhibition caseback in favor of a special aviation-inspired caseback engraving.
The 1920s that followed were the timing of the major evolution of air travel, a field which requires precise instruments, which also reflected on the timepieces from Longines. Its true chronometers enabled the brand to become the official supplier to the International Aeronautical Federation (IAF). The gear produced was used in many pioneering endeavors that happened during the moment. Probably the most notable of them is that the Lindbergh’s first ever flight from New York to Paris. Lindbergh was also included in the plan of the new pilot’s opinion that included the screen of Greenwich time.The new challenges to the achievement of the brand came during the wonderful depression and the Second World War. To be able to endure, the company had to be reorganized to decrease the expense of production and also to make the process more efficient. The troubled times additionally caused the introduction of novelties, like a bageuette movement or a sideograph, a very useful chronometer that was intended for pilots. Longines also entered the area of sport watches that has a distinctive spot in the brand’s collection for this day. However, the most important newcomer was the very first mechanical watch using a self-winding mechanism. The first automated caliber created in the firm’s own workshops had the designation 22A, was curved in form and with subsidiary seconds. It premiered in 1945. Another breakthrough was Calibre 30CH which was a winding motion with a chronograph complication.As the company oriented on the implementation of new technologies, it’s not surprising that the brand was also involved in the introduction of the new kinds of watches which utilized quartz. The particular model made by Longines that has been analyzed at the Neuchatel Observatory and revealed it had been true within a million of another after 24 hours of working. This chronometer was paired with a Pailard-Bolex H16 camera plus a new kind of a sports event instrument was created.
Longines state that the self-winding mechanical column wheel L688.2 caliber used in the Avigation BigEye is produced specially for them by ETA (who call the movement the ETA A08.L01). Column wheel chronograph calibers are typically more respected by fans of vintage watchmaking and watchmaking in general for their highly mechanical and positive feel at the pushers and more intricate internal workings. The 27-jewel L688.2 beats at a familiar 28,800 bph and features a not insignificant 54-hour power reserve.
As they’ve been doing for a few years now, Longines Watches Uae Replica have once again created an interesting proposition for a vintage-inspired modern watch with the Longines Avigation BigEye. The BigEye impresses with it’s straightforward and uncluttered aesthetics, column wheel equipped ETA caliber, and cost of ownership at a suggested price of $2,625. The Longines Avigation BigEye will come as standard on a brown leather strap. longines.com
