The Longines Military WatchThe simply-named
Longines Military Watch was inspired by an
early 1940s pilot's piece that was supplied to the Royal Air Force during World War II, Longines says. It’s the latest in what has become one of the real bright spots each year in Basel – especially when taking price into account – the Longines Heritage collection.
The dial of the simply but aptly named Military Watch bears what is easily one of the most impressive applications of "fauxtina" that I’ve ever seen. Not only is the color spot on, but the surface also has the tell-tale irregularities that come with age and use. Or at least facsimiles of them. On each beige dial there is a faint pattern of dots that have been applied at random, so that no two will ever look exactly the same. It's a dial very typical of military watches from the 1940s, with a font that distinctly recalls the period and a railroad chapter ring for the minutes. The dial font used for the hours is only slightly different from that found on the runaway hit Longines Heritage 1945. The concessions to modernity are pretty invisible to the naked eye, but they of course can be found. Longines has a habit of printing the word automatic on the vast majority of its watches, but you’ll notice that this watch’s austere dial is unmarred by any extraneous text.
The
38.5mm case feels wonderful on the wrist, thanks to both its form factor and the gentle sloping of the tapered lugs. There’s a sharpness to the case’s angles that ties it back to the period of its inspiration while demonstrating the quality in its manufacturing pretty clearly. The original RAF watch that inspired the Military Watch was a hair smaller, Longines representatives say, but that doesn’t bother me, to be honest.
Yet, the movement inside this watch, the modern
L888 (based on the
ETA A31), is indeed automatic. It beats at the unusual rate of 25,200 vph (3.5 Hz), offering a power reserve of about 65 hours while running in 21 jewels and providing just the time. It does so via three great-looking blued hands – which themselves have the appearance of age – for the hours, the minutes, and the seconds.
The Longines Military Watch will be available in the second half of 2018 for a price of
CHF 2,000, which feels more than fair given all of the attention to detail to be found in this watch.
