Longines Lindbergh

The Longines Lindbergh is an hour angle watch by Longines.

The American aviation pioneer Charles A. Lindbergh, who in 1927 had been the first to cross the Atlantic from New York to Paris with a single-engine airplane ("Spirit of St. Louis"), because of his experience with the problem of rapid position detection consulted the watch company Longines at the development of a special watch, by which the determination of the longitude could be made possible easily and quickly. This watch is also known as the „Hour angle watch“ because the most important part in determining the longitude, the hour angle from Greenwich, can be directly read from the watch. In August 1931 this watch was launched under the name "Lindbergh" simultaneously in Europe and overseas.

The brilliant design idea, how one could quickly synchronize the watch with the time signal on the radio by a central, rotating auxiliary dial, incidentally came, not by Lindbergh, but from the American commander and navigation instructor Philip van Horn Weems, after whose patent Longines had alread produced an appropriate watch in 1927. (See: Longines Weems).

1987, after Longines was acquired by the SMH Group, after a gap of several decades, again a collection of the hour angle watch was released to celebrate the 60th anniverary of Lindbergh's landing at Le Bourget. The watch was much smaller than the original, but provided with a mineral glass back that allowed a good view of the movement. Even a chronograph variant was presented: the Longines Lindbergh Hour Angle Chronograph. Since then the watch, now equipped with a movement by ETA, counts to the vital classics in the model range of the brand.

Due to the great interest in the original model, Longines in 1990 also published a limited re-edition of the original, which again had the same over-sized case format of Ø 47.5 mm.

Reference: 989.5215 steel 989.5216 gold L2.500.5.31.3 (Ø 33 mm), steel with gold bezel L2.500.6.11.2 (Ø 33 mm), gold L2.500.6.11.6 (Ø 33 mm), gold with gold bracelet L2.600.4.11.3 (Ø 47.5 mm) manual winding, steel, limited to 1,000 pieces L2.601.4.11.2 (Ø 38 mm, L 614) Stahl L2.601.4.11.6 (Ø 38 mm), steel with steel bracelet L2.601.5.31.3 (Ø 38 mm), steel with gold bezel L2.601.6.11.2 (Ø 38 mm), gold L2.601.6.11.6 (Ø 38 mm), gold with gold bracelet L2.605.4.23.2, steel, ostrich leather strap, limited to 3,000 pieces L2.607.4.71.2, steel, Louisiana crocodile leather strap, limited to 1,000 pieces L2.678.4.11.2 (Ø 47.5 mm) steel L2.678.6.11.2 (Ø 47.5 mm) yellow gold Movement: Self-winding, with base calibre ETA 2892-2 Also: calibre L 614 (basis ETA 2892-A2), Longines Calibre L 628.1, L 989.2 Ø 47.5 mm: Calibre L 699.2, 28,800 A/h 24 jewels, Power reserve 42 h Case: Stainless steel, steel/yellow gold, 18 ct yellow gold Ø 38 mm, H 13.5 mm (re-edition of the original: Ø 47.5 mm, H 16.2 mm) Bidirectional rotating bezel with engraved scale for the calculation of the longitudes Domed mineral glass / present model: sapphire crystal Caseback in gold with sighting window in domed mineral glass and hinged lid in steel Waterproof to 3 atm Dial: White with minute track Black roman numerals, blue, black and red arabic numerals Blued Breguet hands Functions: Hours, minutes, central seconds Turning dial for the calculation of the hour angle for navigation Bracelet: Crocodile leather strap with extension, tang-type buckle Optional: solid, finely structured stainless steel bracelet with clasp

Literature

• Das ZEITGEFÜHL-Uhrenbuch; Autor: Gerd-Lothar Reschke; ISBN 3-938607-61-0