Horological Meandering

A Special Visit to Longines Part 1

 

In April this year I finally made a visit to the Longines factory with a special group of people, as always many old friends and some new ones.

We came from all over Europe for a couple of days at Saint-Imier in Switzerland. I'd like to thank all the people at Longines for making the trip
so memorable and for being such warm and wonderful hosts.

As well as our amazing tour operators who made a great effort in organising the festivities -- Ztirual & Adriano. BRAVO. A thousand thanks.

I will break up this photographic report into a few parts in order to get all the pictures in. As always pictures paint a thousand words, but
feel free to ask any questions. I also hope that the other participants will feel free to add their own memories and pictures.

Most of us arrived the night before and the visit began as it was to continue. Much discussion around food and wine.

Mr. Baeryswyl, for many years a dial specialist at Stern dials, joined us for the trip and
 was very generous with his knowledge of dials and their secrets.

Our Godfather, Adriano who runs LonginesPassion and is a Longines Cognoscenti with Mr Zamberlan a master watchmaker and restorer.

of course while some of us rented a car, others came in a little more style.

Noodia and his Mangusta - Ay Caramba!

So after suitably fortifying ourselves the night before we got up bright and early and made our way to Longines.

Once at Longines we were shown into their boardroom and introduced to some of the Longines team.

The three ladies who work in the Heritage part of Longines and are so amazing at responding to our questions. They make collecting Longines a pleasure and a thrill - I can't thank them enough.

Mara Celant, Stephanie Lachat and a lady who has always been so amazing to me in my enquiries Jennifer Bochud (top picture on the right). Thank you Jennifer for your time and help over the years. You have been invaluable.

We were also joined by another special addition to our numbers , Mr Goldberger. It was a pleasure to share our passion for Longines with him.

Not to waste any time we split into two groups and went to see two different sections of the Longines Heritage departments.

The first was the Longines Museum.

This comprises several floors covering the history of Longines and their amazing timepieces. I have never been before and to say it was astounding and magical would be an understatement.

The room of ledgers, Longines has a record of every watch manufactured since the company began.

After this mesmersing visit to the museum it was time for some lunch.

Where another amazing experience awaited us, Mr Walter von Känel, the CEO of Longines joined us.

A man who has spent decades in the watch industry, it was an honour to have lunch with him and share his extraordinary
and infectious enthusiasm for Longines.










... and of course then we had to get some of our own watches out.

 








However our journey was only half way over. In Part Two I will take us into Longines dedicated vintage restoration department, run by Mr Bernard Portal, who would take our own watches apart and illuminate many mysteries for us.

This message has been edited by Ubik on 2015-06-12 10:18:14 This message has been edited by Ubik on 2015-06-12 10:19:39

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