Longines Lindbergh

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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