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| Longines Avigation Oversize Crown |
Longines
Avigation Oversize Crown stirs up the drama and excitement of early
aviation when magnificent men in their flying machines made history. Avigation, a portmanteau word from aviation and navigation sums up the association of Longines with flying from
its infancy. In 1927 Charles Lindberg
made his first solo nonstop crossing of the North Atlantic .
The flight time was measured as 33 hours and 30 minutes. The watch that
witnessed this splendid moment of human achievement was a Longines. Many of the features of the old watches of the brand were
introduced at the suggestion of Lindberg because one of the directors of the
company was a great fan of the great aviator. The aviation tradition of the
company started in the early years of flying continues even today. Women came
to the forefront of aviation in the middle of the 20th century. When
Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across Atlantic ,
embarked on her mission, she wore a Longines.
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| Amelia Earhart |
The Longines logo, the winged hourglass, registered in 1880, the oldest
registered logo, was truly futuristic as flying was only fiction then. In the
tantalizing world of high-end horology the logo is indeed the most celebrated
one, the ultimate symbol for quality, precision and luxury. Longines Avigation Oversize Crown in its features is the affirmation of the Longines’
communication slogan, elegance is an
attitude. It is an archaic looking new collection merging in style with the
ethos of our times where people love to adorn themselves in retrograde
oversized watches.
Drawing
its inspiration from a model of Longines produced
in 1920s all the three models of the Avigation
Oversize Crown feature an
exaggerated oversize both in the case and crown. The crown has an unusually long
stem, a disproportionate extension for the size of the onion crown. A flaw in
design? No. An intentionally made
anomaly for the easy winding of the crown and adjusting of the bezel for the
pilot who in the early days of aviation had to be protected from cold wind
lashing against him by wearing thick gloves. Certainly this ergonomic design
feature, irrelevant today, will trigger a lot of talk at the table.
In Longines Avigation Oversize Crown the
design features are determined by function rather than the principles of
aesthetics. Visibility in all kinds of light conditions is critical in flying.
So, the hands and the numerals receive a lot of attention in design. The gold
plated hands with luminescent material on them and the baroque Arabic numerals
in the background of the black dial enhance visibility in different light
conditions.
The Avigation Oversize Crown presents three models, an obsessive eagerness to please
different tastes. The base model features three hands. The self-winding
mechanical movement shows the hours and minutes by the large and small hands.
The seconds are shown on a sub dial along with the date at the 6 o’clock hour
marker. In the second model a GMT complication shows time of a different zone
on a 24 hours scale with the help of an additional arrow head hand on the main
dial itself. The third version, equipped
with mono-pusher chronograph movement, display through the two subdials the
running seconds and the thirty minutes chronograph function which are placed at
the 9 and 3 time markers.
Are all
the users of the Longines aviation
watches pilots? Certainly not. Then what is buzz about the brand. A
watch is grand for the great events it witnessed. The brand Longines has a
checkered history of over one hundred and eighty years. It was founded by
Ernest Francillon at Saint-lmier in Switzerland in 1830. Aviation is not the only forte of the brand. It
is the watch of the lover of the outdoor. When the modern day Olympics was held
in 1892, it supplied the hardware for measuring time. Subsequently it has kept time for fourteen
Olympics. In the perilous journey to North Pole by Louis Amedeo de Savoy it was
measuring time for him. Though the brand has a sport flavor about it, it is not
lacking in the stylistic aspect of design. In 1960, it came out with the
thinnest possible watch design, an unbelievably thin electromagnetic watch with
thickness of 0.98 mm only.
Is Longines the name of a person? Some may ask: What is in a name? echoing Romeo
in Shakespeare’s
immortal tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. There is certainly
something in the brand names of high-end watches. Many great watches like the Patek Philippe and
Vacheron Constantin are named after persons. Longines is in the
tradition of Montblanc and Glashutte with evident toponimical
significance. In 1830 Ernest Francillon had the modest beginning of the watch
company, something like a cottage industry at Les Longines (meaning the long
meadows in the local dialect), a little known place in those days. In the years
to come it became one of the most recognized symbols of precision and style in
the fascinating world of horology. The launch of the new aviation series, Longines Avigation
Oversize Crown take us back in memory line to the glorious days
of early aviation when daring men were making history.
