History of Longines
Longines is a brand of watch, originally a company founded by Ernest Francillon at Saint-Imier, Switzerland. Its origins can be traced back to the 1830s and it currently holds the oldest registered logo for a watch company (a winged hourglass). Longines is currently owned by the Swatch Group. Longines is known for its 'Aviators' watches. A director of Longines was a friend of Charles Lindbergh; after his transatlantic flight, Lindbergh designed a pilot watch to help with air navigation. The watch was built to his specifications, and is still produced today.
Since 1832, Longines has been renowned for design and precision. Famous aviators, explorers and pioneers have consulted Longines. Longines provided timers used at the first modern day Olympics in 1892. In 1899, Longines went to the North Pole with Arctic Louis Amédée de Savoie. Longines always strives for elegance in design and technological innovation. It was the first to use automatic timekeeping for the Federal Gymnastics, at Basel in 1912. Today, Longines remains a widely recognized name in sport watches and chronographs.
Official supplier since 1919 to the International Aeronautics Federation (FAI), Longines has provided the watches required to set and then certify numerous world flight records – not least Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 first nonstop solo crossing of the North Atlantic. Instruments designed and built by Longines have thus helped world explorers and trailblazers of the skies. Thus, in 1927 Longines timed the first transatlantic flight, which lasted 33 hours and 30 minutes. In the middle of the 20th century Longines was part of the rise of women's aviation, with Amelia Earhart who was another famous wearer of the brand. This period also marked the appearance of the first in-house self-winding watches and the company won several prestigious awards. Among those awards there were four Diamonds-International Academy Awards and the Prix d'Honneur of Lausanne. In the mid 1930s Longines patented the flyback chronograph.
In addition to the Olympic Games, Longines has timed 31 Tours de France. Longines also started in skiing in 1933, and returned to it in 2006, becoming official timekeeper for the FIS’s 2006-2007 Alpine World Cup competitions.
