The Longines Spirit collection, inspired by aviators and explorers of the past

One of the great things about being a brand that has been in existence for close to 200 years is the wealth of history that they can tap into as inspiration for their next timepiece. And while it’s not uncommon for Longines to dig into their archives for their Heritage collection, the new Longines Spirit instead looks at the legendary explorers and aviators of the past that put their trust in the winged hourglass.

Amelia Earhart took 14 hours and 56 minutes to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlantic in 1932; Howard Huges set the round-the-world flight record of 3 days, 19 hours and 14 minutes in 1938; Paul-Emile Victor spent seven weeks crossing the Greenland ice cap in 1936 at -40°c temperatures; Elinor Smith set an incredible aviation record with an altitude of 32,576 feet in 1931. The thing that all three of these pioneers had in common was, you guessed it, they all did so with the help of a Longines timekeeper.

What I think is great about his new Spirit collection is the fact that they are not just taking an old design and replicating it with a larger case as they often do with their Heritage pieces. This time they are taking the vintage essence, the ‘spirit’ if you will, of old school aviation and exploration and incorporating that into a brand-new design.

With much of their inspiration coming from aviators of the past, the Longines Spirit was designed with a pilot’s watch in mind. To illustrate the core concept of legibility and precision, the Spirit collection comes with oversized crowns, large indexes and luminous baton-style hands. The collection will feature two variants, a time and date option along with a chronograph watch. These two watches will feature movements with silicon hairsprings to guarantee 60 or more hours of power reserve and as a testament to its precision, will also be Chronometer certified by the COSC.

The Longines Spirit date model will come with a case size of either 40mm or 42mm and will be priced at MYR 8,500. The Longines Spirit chronograph comes in a size of 42mm with a blue dial and will cost MYR 12,320.