Horological Meandering

Hi all, I've been looking at the Longines website and their current product offerings. I noticed a very disturbing number of their current watches seem to clearly draw "inspiration" from other brands. Those brands are some of the most revered in the world...  

Your comparison exercise could be applied to dozens and dozens of cases of close inspiration ,so to say. There are models that are very very similar in many brands,even amongst the most expensive and (supposedly)exclusive. It all depends where a brand pos... 

Hi George, Sorry, I dont see the issue. The examples you cite are no more "copies" than are even the examples you gave of the ones being "copied" look back to older designs, look back to the 70's, 60's, even back to the 1900-1940's - you'll see very few d... 

georgeb, This is your first post on this wonderful forum, and you start by lambasting a brand with a 180 year history. I have seen similar threads on other forums. It's like you have an axe to grind or something. You should be grateful that Longines are p... 

I was just browsing another well know forum and I came across another post this morning lambasting Longines in the same way. The poster was named JorgesB, so I guess that is you again, and apparently you posted a similar thread on that forum a month ago. ... 

Are you a Longines owner? Don't read too much into intentions. I happen to own a few of those mentioned brands and noticed the 'similarities'. Maybe being politically correct is better. Just one thing though. I see you have 121 posts and that's 119 more t... 

It seems that there is an organized move afoot to post scurrilous things about Longines. The substance of the posts which have popped up on various websites is nonsensical. The orchestrated way in which this happening is troubling. One would have hope tha... 

The Longines diver is a copy of the JLC Polaris? Are you serious? The Longines diver was issued as soon as 1960. The Polaris was born as a Proto in... 1963.

Thanks for the detailing, Nicolas. I had a feeling the Longines Diver came first. Interesting to see how the fashions of the period influenced design, even down to font choices. Andrew

A round watch with roman numerals is not necessarily a copy of any of the hundreds of other round watches with roman numerals, especially when (as is the case in each of your examples) there are other significant differences in both details and overall co... 

Weems as copy of Astrotourbillon? You don't like Longines question is why? True reason why? Best Damjan

This is the second time I've seen this post. Like others have noted it only takes a few minutes of research to see Longines originated theses designs decades ago. The Diver came before the Polaris in 1960. The Weems dates to 1927 in original form and the ... 

Howdy and welcome to the forum Longines is a highly reputable brand, with ALOT of history; and their offerings are priced reasonably and great value for money. I suppose there are similarities like you have pointed out, but there is a basic premise for al... 

when the Aggasiz brothers formed Longines they also continued to make movements under the original Aggasiz name. these movements were of the highest quality with Geneva seals and supplied for use in watches by both Patek and Vacheron amongst others. i'll ... 

Thanks for the post. I had never really thought of buying a Longines before this post, but the Avigation looked pretty unique, so I read some reviews on the watch, and it looks like a great watch at a reasonable price. I'll have to see one in the metal th... 

...so 'welcome here' - sincerely. It is hasty for anyone to judge your motives or thinking on the strength of one post and reply, particularly as you are not yet familiar with the tenets of decorum which we hope to offer, and receive, here. Hopefully we w... 

I've heard the arguments in defense of Longines. Most are along the lines of - Vehement emotional response. "are you kidding?", "get over it!". "Blasphemy!" - Citation of Longines long history. And that obviously means Longines can never do wrong. - Consp... 

i'm happy to go on record as saying that very little in Longines current line up actually interests me. the Legend Diver is just that, a Legend, but nothing much else floats my boat. i dont believe anyone is blindly loving Longines, they are just pointing... 

Dam,our secret plan to take over the world has Been discovered. Secretly we have been funded by Longines to world domination,starting from monopolisation of the watch world first. In fact we had a big summit just after your post in our secret hq on top of... 

You know what happens to the one who denunciate our secret plot...sorry Darko will visit you tomorrow :) Best my mate in connspiration P.S. I hope that Longines will now finally send me the Lindbergh pro bono Damjan

... However, it is wrong to draw the conclusions you did, that Longines is merely a copycat of the industry. It happens sometimes that iconic designs are copied, or, as industry officials like to put it, "inspired a hommage". Just look at the original Plo...  

than from any of the other examples given - it is different enough that, whether there was or not any "design studying" during the design phase of the modern, current example (I'm not saying there was or wasn't) I don't see an issue with "copying" egregio... 

Never heard of the A-7 till today!!! Thanks for the history lesson. Best, Horo

Did we ever say that Longines is a perfect world? We could discuss a more interesting, and less wrong point, which could be the present of Longines, which is far from being, in quality, and horologically, at the level of the past of the brand; If you spen... 

Dear georgeb, 1. Your posts and this thread are still up. 'nuf said. 2. If someone disagrees with you, your reply is you are "attacked" ...sorry, that just ain't so (granted, there are some posts here that have turned ad hominem, but given how you present... 

Who is this poster???? A claim that this forum depends on advertising from the Swatch Group. Really??????? Something strange is going on which causes me to doubt the motives of this poster and wonder how it is that similar posts, under a different name, h... 

so your basic hypothesis is incorrect. The responses from the community are not coordinated not instigated by the moderators of PuristSPro. Welcome to our community. Regards, MTF CEO PuristSPro

"Longines has no previous model in its history with this rotated dial and crown at 45degs" This is simply not true. Longines produced the A-7 in the thirties to US military spec. Here's an exert from a Longines 1937 catalogue. (credit - ) As others have a...  

As usual I have learned a lot from this post. My thanks to the Purists who have given detailed replies bringing out Longines history and demonstrating categorically where Longines are drawing their inspiration from. It is great to see their historical des... 

Longines was a SUPER brand, with great movements, and fine watches. Dive into the brand, discover the Pandora's box, and open it with greediness. Best, Nicolas ...  

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Horological Meandering front page. Moderators - won't you take down this trolls post instead of advertising his maliciousness?

Write anything, here. We have an educated community. We sometimes have some weird people. In this case, this is not Longines which looks bad, but the author of this " post ". Best, Nicolas

... in true PuristS fashion. If there is one person out there who thinks this way about similarities in Longines current lineup, there are probably others. What is required is evidence to put this into perspective. And that is what this discussion allows.... 

quite right Andrew. it shows us all that to comment on a heritage collection without knowing the brands full history can be fool hardy so research is paramount before putting your neck on the block. best G On 17 Jun 2013 07:49, "www watchprosite" *Alert f...