LONGINES AND INDIA A PROVEN 150-YEAR CONNECTION

Longines’s storied history is unrivalled among major global watch brands. Because of its meticulous record keeping, and a carefully preserved inventory that stocks watch spares going back to the days of the company’s founding in the 19th century, it can repair watches that are more than a century old. And as the Head of Brand Heritage and member of the Management Board of Longines, Daniel Hug is the official keeper of the brand's illustrious past. He has been travelling around the world recently talking about Longines's history, exhibiting key products from the past, and meeting vintage Longines watch collectors. At his Delhi stopover, he spoke exclusively to Man's World magazine

Man's World: As the resident historian of the brand can you elaborate on Longines's long association with India, which goes back a century or even more? Daniel Hug: Yes. Longines started to sell watches in India as early as 1878. That was the time when we still had the British empire and the oldest watch we found in India was Longines pocket watch in silver from 1884 in Mumbai. And what's amazing is really that this watch, which is 140 years old, is still in working condition.

It's a long history that connects Longines to India. And, what I found really impressive, is that Longines made even special watches just for India. Like the Pilot's watch from 1950, a huge watch of 44 millimetres, anti-magnetic, is absolutely shockproof, highly resistant, and very accurate. And there are some special features like a second hand, that you can see moving during the night because there is a luminous mask on the tip of the hand. It's a feature that you see normally on the dive watches, not on pilot's watches. But it comes from aviation.

The watch is missing in our museum, and at the moment, I'm on the hunt.

I'm searching for exactly such a watch because I want to have it in our museum.

This big Indian watch is an important watch for us. The engravings on the movement are just amazing. The engraving on these types of watches was directly on the bridge of the movement.

So, I want to have that in the museum as well. Some of our collectors have it. That's why I know the watch.

MW: Do you get requests from Indian owners of vintage Longines for repair and change of parts?