Lépine
1318
Is it priceless?
In the watch collecting world, finding the very first watches ever created for the brand is the holy grail.
Only one watch can claim to be the worlds oldest watch or the earliest watch surviving of the brand.
This watch was born on October 27th, 1867, the first days of production of the Longines Brand.
This watch was created before the Longines Factory was operational. It was completely handmade. Unlike the first factory built Longines watches, the individual parts were all hand finished to make the movement work making individual parts noninterchangeable with any other watch.
Would anyone like to guess what the value of this watch is.
Is it priceless?
In the watch collecting world, finding the very first watches ever created for the brand is the holy grail. Only one watch can claim to be the worlds oldest watch or the earliest watch surviving of the brand. This watch was born on October 27th, 1867, the...
What a marvel and beauty you have there Seiji.
What is the inscreption on the dial? Price: It is out of my league Enjoy!
The dial looks like this.
The walch of course made international news. Enter text ...
Antique shop
I found this in France not more than a few miles from Genève. At the time it was about 151 years old and it was in an antique shop a couple hours drive away. So close to where the Comptoir would have been. Better image of it's younger sibling. Oldest watc...
AA4 serial numbers are not visible
I know how to spot it. Sorry this is a secret. There is a way. They changed the AA4 so many ways you can estimate it's serial by looking at it without taking it appart. But some have found the movement and case don't match. These watches are cheap.
Not trying to steal a secret, :D I am just amazed by the amount of knowledge that allowed your to spot a very early series Longines pocket watch, when 99.999% of people would have just seen an old worthless pocket watch !
Hence I assume the seller had no idea of what he was selling ! Congrats !
I easy now to tell what is an AA4.
So identifying an AA4 is not hard and they generally sell for $3,000 to $5,000 for all numbers matching unless they are super low serial numbers. They are very rare. Only 11 are known to exist. They cost more to repair than purchase. Only 1 gold one exist...
I have others from around the world all around WW1 and Red 12 Trench Watches. Several from Imperial Russia.
Technically this is Yugoslavian Longines ...
The Military Academy watch is nice, but Russian Army better.
Henrich Khan is just as interesting and far more rare. This Longines was made by order of Nicholas II Czar of Russia for the Imperial Russian Elite Guards. If interested, I will share more details about this Romanov watch. ...
Rare is so over used word. Multi-color Enamel
I won't use the words rare for these since if you spend a year or so, I am sure you could find these. But they are hard to get. The first of these is the Longines double faced chronograph made before 1900. I have two of them and slightly different dials. ...
No way to see movement without taking a dial off.
You would think that I would have movement pictures, but the watch has two fronts and no backs 😅. You'll figure out what I mean.
Just to make sure we understand why this watch has two faces and no backs.
Longines Double Face
Ah! I had no idea. Even better.
Thanks so much for sharing these precious Longines pieces.
Part 2
There is more to the story. Walter von Kaenel gave me 19/20 of the Equestrian L7 series watches he made for a special exhibition. These watches were given as lifetime achievement awards to members of the European and Middle Eastern Royalty. ...
What a treasure and an honor to receive such a gift and with such gratitude from Longines.
That must have been a thrilling and meaningful experience. Is that you pictured in the last picture?
That trip.
This film says a lot about Walter von Kaenel and the entire staff at that time of Longines. To make this film, they provided me with $10,000 direct flight airline tickets from my home country to Zurich. I had already been to Switzerland a few times so I k...
Recent sale of a 347 case w/ 3223 mov't
I was going through my notes and remembered this. There were a lot of last minute bids and it went to $4,500 for a watch that doesn't run and doesn't have the correct movement for the case. The case is number #347 and should have mov't serial #347, but it...
Longines bought the parts for #583
Longines bought for their museum two AA4 watches. #335 is the oldest they have and the second oldest they own is #583. A German collector sold both to The Longines Heritage Museum. The gentleman received I believe he said $5,000 for the parts for #583 and...
#183 is all original but it is also keeping accurate time
= It has 1 service mark after 155 years. ...