Longines once again draws from its rich watchmaking history to produce the latest vintage-inspired timepiece in its collection — and this week’s Watch to Watch — the Longines Column-Wheel Single Push-Piece Chronograph, which is available in two distinctive versions.
Like other Longines Single-Push Piece Chronographs that preceded it — including the Avigation Oversize Crown model and the 24-hour-dial version — this watch takes design cues from an earlier model, in this case a Longines timepiece produced in the first half of the 20th century. Also similarly to those watches, this one boasts an exclusive caliber developed for Longines by movement-maker ETA, its sister brand within the Swatch Group. (Click on photos for larger images.)
Longines Caliber L788.2, which is based on the ETA A08.L11, is an automatic movement equipped with a monopoussoir (single push-piece) chronograph function controlled by a column wheel. The user of this watch is thus able to operate the start, stop, and return-to-zero functions of the stopwatch by means of a single pusher embedded conveniently in the winding crown. The movement has 27 jewels, a frequency of 28,800 vph, and a power reserve of 54 hours. The column wheel — which, along with the rest of the movement, is visible through the clear sapphire caseback — has a striking, blued finish.
The round, stainless-steel case of the Longines Column-Wheel Single Push-Piece Chronograph measures 41 mm in diameter and is water-resistant to 30 meters; the front sapphire crystal boasts several layers of nonreflective treatment. Two dial options are available: matte black, with white Arabic numerals; and white lacquer, with black numerals. Both also feature a contrasting tachymeter scale around the dial’s border. The dial has a classical bi-compax design, with a 30-minute chronograph counter at 3 o’clock and small seconds at 9 o’clock. The date appears in a window at 6 o’clock. The hands, including the center-mounted chronograph seconds hand, are rhodium-plated on the black-dial version and blued on the white-dial version.
The Longines Column-Wheel Single Push-Piece Chronograph comes with a black alligator leather strap for the matte black model (Ref. L2.800.4.53.0) and with a brown alligator leather strap for the white-lacquer model (Ref. L2.800.4.23.2). Both retail for $3,150 and will be available this fall.
Do you prefer white or black dial ?
Nice looking. My only suggestion would be for the date on the black dial version to be white text on black background to match the rest of the watch.