The Heritage series by Longines is reviving yet another historic model that was originally intended for pilots. This time, the watch in question is Avigation timekeeper from 1949 which was made for the British Army. The latest black-faced model by Longines comes with a self-winding mechanical movement which is supplied with the second time zone indication. Thanks to the protective chamber made of iron, the watch is also able to withstand harmful effects of magnetic fields.
Longines Heritage Avigation 1949 Watch
As it is common for the Heritage collection, the new watch by the Swiss watchmaker with the winged hourglass logo is another modernized version of its historic model. It retains some of the traits of the original model that was created for the British army in 1949. Apart from the matching dimensions of its round housing (the stainless steel case of the new model measures to 44 mm), the novel watch has an even more important feature that concerns the model’s functionality. The trait in question is the presence of a plate and dome which are made of soft iron and which are used to provide the movement with the magnetic resistance. Given the fact that the watch is made for pilots, it is clear why this sort of resilience is quite important.
Otherwise, the watch is more or less run-of-the-mill mechanical timekeeper. It comes with L704.2 automatic movement with 24 jewels which operates at the frequency of 4 Hz. The caliber with base movement ETA A07 171 has the diameter of 16 ½ lignes (36.6 mm) and the thickness of 7.9 mm. It features automatic winding and once it is fully wound, it provides a power storage that keeps the watch running for two whole days.
Longines Heritage Avigation 1949 Watch Front
Longines Heritage Avigation 1949 model has a dark face with contrasting numerals as it is mostly the case with pilot’s watches. It possesses black lacquered and polished dial as the background for the hour scale consisted of large painted Arabic numerals. The numerals as well as the minute/second markers are painted in white color and treated with SuperLuminova coating. There are four central hands that are featured on the dial. Its stick-shaped hour and minute hands, as well as a sweeping seconds hand are rhodium-plated. The fourth Losagne shaped hand is made in red color. It points to the inner 24-hour scale in the same color and it indicates time in the second time zone. There is also a date aperture at the standard three o’clock position. The final touch that completes the dial is an arrow shaped symbol at the top which is used to designate the British government property. This symbol denotes the origin of the timekeeper from the 1940s which was made specifically for the British army.
The round steel case of the watch is made with a screw-down case-back of solid metal and it provides just basic waterproofness to 30 meters. As for the other elements in the construction of the watch, they include a fixed bezel and a sapphire crystal with several layers of glare-proof coating on the underside. The timepiece with the reference number L2.831.4.53.2 comes with a black alligator strap which locks with a pin-buckle made of steel.
