Are Longines watches good?

Jobs OXO

Had the following recommended....

https://www.watches-swiss.com/Longines-L2-766-4-59-3-Saint-Imier-mens-Swiss-watch-p12130.html

What do you think ?

CeilingFly

Longines are excellent, but reviews of that website are very poor.

Wibbs

Full disclosure: I've always been a Longines man, from way back when I first got into collecting "old watches" as a kid back in the 80's. My dad was also a Longines man so I learned that on his knee, or wrist. It helped that for so long and for various reasons Longines was the poor undervalued relation compared to say Omega and definitely Rolex(and still is to some degree). To illustrate Rolex have Superlative Chronometer as a trademark and a selling point, yet in the actual Chronometer trials of the 20th century they barely figured and when they did Longines among others blew the doors off them. Longines along with Zenith made most of the rest, including Patek look like rank amateurs. Seiko won more plaudits than Rolex.

Longines chronographs from the 1930's made Heuer chronographs from the 1960's look like dinosaurs and their aviation connections would shame Breitling and especially IWC. The trio of the first true dive watches were Rolex, Blancpain and Longines. The latter traditionally ignored. They were also in on the ground floor when battery power instead of mainsprings came along.

Where they suffered later on was after the quartz crisis and the Swatch group came along to reposition different brands that still had legs. Longines didn't have so many recognisable models as Omega's seamaster, speedmaster and they had largely given up in house movements in the middle of the quartz crisis, so today they're positioned in the new watch segment below Omega who the Swatch group have tried to push as a Rolex alternative(though pick up a watch catalogue from 1970 when they were all independent and Omega, Rolex, Longines and similar were around the same prices as they were in direct competition with each other).

Oh and they have one of the oldest trademarks(the winged hourglass) in the world. And were the first Swiss marque to copy the American watchmakers and standardised parts(not IWC as they claim, but then again IWC's "claims" are always to be taken with a large pinch of NaCl).

Annnnnnyhooooo :D Yeah Longines are a quality brand IMHO and with a great history. Their current offerings can be very nice, particularly their reissues/homages to vintage models. The Longines Legend Diver a good example. Value wise they're much better on that score than Omega or Rolex. Adjusting for inflation etc they(and companies like Hamilton) are the same kinda prices as they were back in the day. Whereas Omega and Rolex and Zenith and Rado are many many multiples of that.

If you like that watch and it's a good price for you, I'd say go for it, though personally if I was going new Longines I'd look more at their vintage reissues many of which come in at around the same kinda price.

I'll bet you're sorry you asked J.

emo72

that reminds me, i bought my wife a longines watch back in the day before i knew anything about watches. must post it up to see if wibbs knows anything about it.

bren2002

Short answer Yes
Long answer, i like to think i know a thing or 2 about watches. Longines are in my opinion the best value in terms of build quality to price

I bought my wife a ladies automatic snd its a fantastic watch. But bear in mind an automatic costing 2k is not as accurate as a few hundred quartz one.

unkel

Longines tend to depreciate more in the first few years than some higher rated (by some) makes like Omega or Rolex

So if you get a nearly new second hand Longines, it can represent superb value for money. I had a Conquest GMT like this



And it looks just pure class. Don't take my word for it, just show it to anyone around you (not into watches) and they will say: wow. Not only was it a very classy watch, it also kept ridiculously good time with the excellent ETA / Valgranges movement. About +/- 1s per day. I was already in love with another watch so I had to let it go, but honestly you will never get more bang for your buck than with a decent Longines. Think the better Seikos that are great value for money, but then one big jump up onto the Swiss ladder.

blue5000

Ah lads don't be letting the cat out of the bag.

I have to say a big thank you to Wibbs for introducing me to the pleasure of vintage Longines collecting. I think it's where the most bang for your buck lies. I've only once gone over the €200 mark. Instead of buying their latest reincarnation I go for the originals that inspired them at a fraction of the cost. Bear in mind this doesn't always work out, legend divers command a fair premium, but that could all change in 6 months when the next big re-issue comes along.

Size can be an issue with my big farmer wrists though.

Eoin

I've only owned a couple and not handled many more than that, but I don't think I'd rave about them quite as much.

For a mainstream Swiss brand that has some cachet with the general public, yeah, they're good value. If brand name isn't important, then I think there are a lot of micro brands that would be better value for money. But that probably applies to a lot of other mainstream brands too.

unkel wrote:

Think the better Seikos that are great value for money, but then one big jump up onto the Swiss ladder.

Apart from Grand Seiko, which would put a lot of luxury Swiss brands to shame!

saccades

yet in the actual Chronometer trials of the 20th century they barely figured and when they did Longines among others blew the doors off them. Longines along with Zenith made most of the rest, including Patek look like rank amateurs. Seiko won more plaudits than Rolex.

That's a little misleading - Seiko have a quite famous history with the chronometer trails and why they are no longer held.

Wibbs

saccades wrote: »

That's a little misleading - Seiko have a quite famous history with the chronometer trails and why they are no longer held.

true enough S, but still I would stand by the position that much vaunted brands like Rolex among others that tout their chronometer "history" don't hold up to much scrutiny compared to many other brands either ignored, far cheaper, or gone that bettered them on the regular in those trials.