Longines Lindbergh's Atlantic Voyage Watch

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed)
Jan 18th 2010 at 12:02PM

Honestly I don't know if I can take another Lindbergh themed watch from Longines. Yes, I know that back in the 1930s Longines made a special watch for Charles and he wore it on his famous trans-Atlantic flight. And like Omega with the Moon watch, Longines has been trying hard to squeeze this fact for all its worth. Maybe it is because these watches aren't particularly interesting, or perhaps because the theme seems too staid, but I just stopped caring myself about this a while ago. Nobody cares about the "excitement of flying over the Atlantic," because these days, people do it daily. Whereas, going to the Moon is still, sort of a big deal.

What I do want to see is "Lindbergh's Baby Watch." There, the caseback of the watch will open to reveal the missing kid, not just the movement. Of course that will never happen, but I can dream. Longines seems to be quite lacking in innovation in the men' watch department. There have probably been better Lindbergh themed Longines watches in the past, but here is the skinny on this latest one.

It isn't very skinny at all at 47.5mm wide in either steel or 18k rose gold. Like a pocket watch, the case has a hinge at the back which opens to a sapphire crystal view of the ETA A07.231 automatic 30 minute chronograph movement. Pushing in the crown opens up the back of the watch. The dial is really more of the same from what we have seen with these style of watches. Bi-compax chronograph layout, blued steel hands, and a "vintage colored" dial with "railroad style hands" and tachymeter scale around the periphery of the dial. I usually don't say this about many watches, but this watch is just a bit too big. Almost 48mm in this classic style will just look a bit silly on wrists. Yes, 47.5mm wide is the size of the original Longines Lindbergh watch, for Charles Lindbergh... fine, for the collectors sake leave it that size. Strap is brown alligator leather. It bores me to death, but hey, Longines has got to do what they need to do, to keep on ticking.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: atlantic voyage, AtlanticVoyage, Lindbergh, Longines, watch

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

wparker000 Feb 24th 2010 7:33PM

Mr. Adams,

You wrote "What I do want to see is 'Lindbergh's Baby Watch.' There, the caseback of the watch will open to reveal the missing kid, not just the movement. Of course that will never happen, but I can dream."

No man with any sense of human values would reveal such a heinous dream. Would you be even more pleased if the caseback photo was that of the baby's partially decomposed body. Reporters of the time (also lacking those same values) broke into the morgue to obtain that one.

You also state "Yes, I know that back in the 1930s Longines made a special watch for Charles and he wore it on his famous trans-Atlantic flight."

Not true. The watch was produced six years after the 1927 flight that made him famous. He was a desperately poor man whose St. Louis backers made the first flight possible. Longines hadn't any idea who he was at that time.

Jay Y Aug 14th 2010 10:33PM

wparker000: Please get your facts straight before making such a pretentious, self-important comment.

Charles Lindbergh was famously a friend of the then director of Longines. He sent a list of the complications he needed for his flight and Longines created a custom watch for Lindbergh for his flight. The watch is now presently located at the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis.