Longines Admiral&Sports Legends Automatic Watches

Categorized as “traveler's,” Longines Admiral collection assembles characteristics of diving, racing, and general utility sports timepieces. Admiral watches feature a set of push buttons for the chronograph complication (buttons upgraded to a more modern look compared to GrandeVitesse retro design), the trademark oversized 12 o'clock marker, and a tachymeter scale on the arena walls.

The collection takes some risks by incoporating various kinds of hands for the various timing functions. It's a generally versatile line of watches in terms of design: some models resemble HydroConquest pieces, while others appear more close to GrandeVitesse. Eventually, the best way to describe this collection is to call it “sports casual.”

Longines Admiral watches are really Yacht timers. On the one hand, they possess all the security functions of diving watches: screw in crown, water resistance (100 meters), large luminescent numerals and hands, and safety straps&bracelets. On the other hand, the tachymeter scale clearly makes Admiral a water motor racing watch (though probably not as elaborate as some Corum professional timers); models whithout the scale can function as sailing watches. A second time zone on the bezel defines these versions as travel timepieces.

Longines Sports Legends is a small line of watches dedicated to preserving past technologies and designs. It consists of four classic watches, all very different in design and appearance – their status as “classic” is their most common characteristic. Some of the more interesting visual features include the use of Breguet hands, and the incorporation of an older logo variation; mechanical peculiarities comprise the use of an internally turning diving scale, a quaint, baroque crown, a mechanism that synchronizes the watch with a radio time signal, and an equation of time complication.

Sports Legends are clearly collector's items. This nostalgic collection allows Longines to boast its legacy and watchmaking tradition by packaging it in retro looking, elaborate watches with some unusual complications.