A Nice 9Ct Gold Longines From 1964

[WillFly]

I'm slowly adding to my collection of gold watches. (thinks... am I getting blingier as I get older...?) and made an offer on a nice, simple Longines this morning. Which was accepted. I do like Longines movements, which are generally beautifully engineered. It's in a Baumes-made 9ct gold case, hallmarked for London, 1964. The pic of the movement's a little lacking in contrasts - I'll post some better ones when it comes. Also a few marks on the sub-seconds dial, but I'm not particularly worried - I like to keep watches as they are, if possible, with all their history.

 

Edited September 20, 2014 by WillFly

[Geo]

That's potentially a really nice watch. Do you intend having the dial refinished?

[WillFly]

That's potentially a really nice watch. Do you intend having the dial refinished?

It's a possibility. I'll look at it in the flesh when it gets here and see what it's like in general. I'd prefer the dial to remain as original as possible, but - if need be - I'll get D.R. Bill to do it up, which will be in the region of £70 or so. (He's just quoted me £83 for a chrono dial refinish, and the chrono is far tattier than the Longines).

Edited September 20, 2014 by WillFly

[autowind]

Thats a very nice top quality watch Will,  a few pounds spent on the dial and it will look like new.  It would be interesting to know how many ticks it's ticked since 1964,  got to be in the millions.

 

Just out of interest but if you want the dial restored do you have to remove it yourself or just post them the watch and they remove it?

[bobm12]

Sometimes pictures don't do justice to items like watches, too many reflecting surfaces. This is a very nice watch Will, I bet it will look much better when it arrives! Congratulations on an excellent acquisition!

[Geo]

 It would be interesting to know how many ticks it's ticked since 1964,

If it's running at 18,000 BPH and allowing for 50% down time it will have ticked approximately 4,000,000,000 times in the last fifty years!

[bobm12]

Nice, but I would probably say ~30% off the wrist (24/3 = sleep time). But of course, that would be me using this nice watch!

[WillFly]

Dial restorers just want the dial - so it has to be taken off before it's sent to them.

[Geo]

Time to get the tools out Will.

[autowind]

4 Billion ticks + or -  a few dozen is amazing,  and it is probably still running great.  Most man made things wear out,  but not it seems a 17 jewel Swiss watch.

[bobm12]

Please, don't mention Swiss out loud or they will bump up their prices still more! :)

 

 

PS. and lower the jewel count...

[WillFly]

The watch arrived this morning, in good nick and starting up on the first wind. I'll time it over the next 24 hours and see how it goes. The casing is in excellent condition, as is the movement, which is a Cal. 19.4. Interestingly, the watch movement dimension, according to Ranfft, is 8.75 lignes - which is 19.4mm. So - did Longines allocate calibre numbers by the dimensions of the movement? A quick check on other Longines movements in Ranfft tells me: No! Probably pure coincidence.

 

Anyway, some pics of mine. Looking at the dial in the flesh leads me to the conclusion that, at some stage, I will get the dial cleaned up.

 

Edited September 22, 2014 by WillFly

[bobm12]

Better that the first pictures! It is a very, very nice watch...at the risk of repeating myself! Congratulations Will on an excellent new jewel for your collection!

 

As a side note, did you know that Longines was the only other watch that flew to the moon with the Omegas and actually helped the crew? There is a story behind that I have to look up, something about failing computers and emergency landings similar to the Omega story. The watch in question was not officially sanctioned by NASA but one of the crew took it with him and actually was indispensable at the time, performing flawlessly under those conditions.

Edited September 22, 2014 by bobm12

[WillFly]

Better that the first pictures! It is a very, very nice watch...at the risk of repeating myself! Congratulations Will on an excellent new jewel for your collection!

 

As a side note, did you know that Longines was the only other watch that flew to the moon with the Omegas and actually helped the crew? There is a story behind that I have to look up, something about failing computers and emergency landings similar to the Omega story. The watch in question was not officially sanctioned by NASA but one of the crew took it with him and actually was indispensable at the time, performing flawlessly under those conditions.

No - I'd never heard that story - I'd love to know more...

[bobm12]

I read it once on line, and it looked legit. Now all I can find is how great Omega is and a long "course" on Swiss quality by Swatch! Weird because it was only this one incident I read about...not talking about the Rolex GMT Master that landed the Apollo-whatever-number nor the Bulova Accutrons and stopwatches officially adopted for timing tasks by NASA but something related to a module landing on the sea somewhere: small but important. The astronaut carried it just for testing or out of habit and it came through instead of the intended equipment.

 

Now, there is also a Whittnauer that filled in for an Omega when the later popped its crystal due to the pressure... and found references of other brands at different times, including the Seiko 6139 on the Skylab but complete silence for Longines which doesn't seem right. Information suppressed? Don't get me wrong, I love Omegas but fair is fair.

 

In any case, Longines have a long history in sporting events and other significant activities and was considered for testing by NASA for space flights. There were a reduced few for this testing. According to the web, only Omegas passed but that doesn't retract in quality and/or prestige as we all know. I believe most movements for space purpose were -- or similar to - the Valjoux 7734.

Edited September 22, 2014 by bobm12

[Calin]

I wonder, how accurate is the movement? Thank you!