Longines

The Compagnie des Montres Longines, Francillon SA is a traditional Swiss watch manufacturer with the oldest registered watch brand in the world. The company dates back to a production facility, which was built in 1832 in the Swiss town of Saint- Imier, where today is located the headquarters. In the company's museum the company's history can be reconstructed on the basis of there pocket and wrist watches, chronograph, timing devices and navigation instruments.

Longines produces high-quality watches in the higher price range.

History

Auguste Agassiz opened in 1832 along with the watches dealers Henri Raiguel and Florian Morel in Saint- Imier, a watch trade in manufacturing. Agassiz presented the soon known as a particularly durable watches " in the style of Saint- Imier " at trade fairs throughout Europe before and quickly acquired a good reputation and high name recognition. On July 1, 1862 then taken over by his nephew Ernest Francillon the watch manufacturer. This 1866 bought a piece of land on the outskirts of Saint- Imier in a place which was called « les Longines ". A manufactory was established in the year 1867 a pocket watch with the drawing " E. Francillon, Longines, Suisse " was produced. To protect against counterfeiting the name " Longines " was then registered with the Swiss Federal Intellectual Property Office on May 27, 1889. By registering with the International Intellectual Property Office in March 1893 Longines was the oldest registered watch brand in the world.

After Francillons death in 1900 were made in 1903 the first mechanical attachments ladies watches. Two years later, Longines produced the first mechanically produced men's wristwatch, which gradually supplanted the pocket watch. In the following years, the company devoted primarily covers the measurement of time in the sport and supported scientific expeditions. So Longines was for example responsible for the timing of the historic Atlantic crossing by the American aviator Charles Lindbergh in 1927. Then advised Lindbergh the watch manufacturer based on his experience with the problem of fast position determination in the development of a special watch that should allow the determination of longitude during a flight quickly and easily. This clock is also referred to as the " hour angle " because the most important part is to read in the determination of longitude, the hour angle of Greenwich, directly from the clock. She appeared in 1932 under the name " Lindbergh " on the market.

In 1945, the first Longines watch with automatic winding on the market, in 1952 the company has been the official timekeeper of the Olympic Winter Games in Oslo. 1960 a particularly flat electromagnetic plant was developed in 1967 brought out with the model " Ultra -Chron " a very precise automatic wristwatch with 36,000 semi-oscillations per hour and 1969 presents a particularly accurate continuous quartz watch with the name " Ultra - Quartz ". With the advent of quartz watches as a commodity, the company came in the early 1980s as many watch manufacturers into financial difficulties and was integrated into the SMH group, now known as the Swatch Group, with numerous brands such as Swatch, Breguet, Omega, Blancpain and Longines one of the great Swiss watch manufacturer. This allows use of intra-group synergies, such as the supply of high-quality housing parts by the sister company Georges Ruedin in Lower Court.