Last year, we reviewed an extremely beautiful Longines with an understated diamond dial. The watch had everything that anyone would want - solid gold case manufactured by DiVincenzo & Arienti, a beautiful dial with guilloche finishing, and diamonds for hour markers at each quarter-hour. What was eye-opening about that watch was how comfortable it felt to wear. Sometimes diamonds can make a watch uncomfortable to wear; not from the perspective of how it fits on the wrist, but if one is not used to wearing diamonds, aesthetically, it makes it feel different.

Now the watch we covered then was a traditional circle shaped case. The watch today has a very simple square case. The watch has the case number 5028, and was manufactured in 1973, based on the movement serial number. The watch has a 10k gold filled case, that has a bit of an interesting easter egg based on the case stamps. The watch was sold in the USA market, and we will get into details about this later. On the inside of the caseback, one will see that it is stamped by “D&A”, indicating it was produced by DiVincenzo & Arienti, a Brooklyn-based case maker who manufactured cases for Longines, Omega, and Hamilton. But, there is an additional stamp on the outside caseback which says “B&A”.

Now what we have is a discrepancy of casemaker stamps. There is little information online about why there would be two different stamps on this Longines case. We will posture that the stamp on the outside of the case was a mistake and should have been D&A. Mistakes are not something you typically see with Swiss watch companies, but are cool detail that in some ways make the watch an interesting piece of history for the brand.

As mentioned previously, the watch was destined for the USA market. It was sold by the Longines-Wittnauer Watch Company that operated out of New York and Montreal. The companies name is engraved on the inside caseback. Wittnauer was a successful brand in the USA, and was acquired by Longines in 1950, just after World War II where they became a distribution partner for Longines. In 1969, Longines-Wittnauer was sold to Westinghouse Electric Corporation and in 1994, Longines ended their distribution relationship with Wittnauer. But, during their partnership, many different models hit the market that are of interest to collectors today.

The case is is in good overall condition. The lugs are thin, short, and angle towards the wrist. At 24mm x 24mm, the case is by any standards, small, and not for everyone. But it would look good in dressier settings and even in casual ones, depending on the style of the wearer. The case has a two piece construction, the top portion which includes the crystal and lugs, and the bottom portion which has a concave section where the movement sits inside.

The watch has a very cool two-tone, black and gold dial. The black portion of the dial is attached to the movement, which as stated before, sits inside the bottom portion of the case. Outside of the case, the dial is actually square-shaped, similar to the case shape. The top of the case has an oval-shaped section beneath the crystal which frames the black portion of the dial, making the black portion of the dial appear oval-shaped, instead of square. The black dial has a very cool texture to it and adds some depth to what one looks at.

The dial has applied hour markers and diamond indices at 12, 3, 6, and 9. The diamond hour markers are round cut, and are subtle. They are not loud, and look great with the texture of both the black dial and gold textured frame. Now although the famous song say “diamonds are forever”, they are not for everyone. Although, simple, accented dials like this Longines are a good introduction to people who may want to give them a go.

Moving to the movement of the watch, the watch runs on the caliber 528 manual wind movement. The movement was based on the Longines caliber 520.and based on other watches sold, seems to have been launched around 1969 and used into the 1970’s. Typically, for Longines watches sold in the USA, one would see the import code LXW stamped on the balance wheel bridge of the movement, but this one does not have that marking. A great thread on the NAWCC provides us with some helpful details:

“In 1954, President Eisenhower triggered the escape clause of the 1936 Trade Agreement and raised tariff rates on Swiss watches, citing injury to the domestic watch industry. Lyndon Johnson reapplied the previous lower rates in 1967 when it was found that import relief did not stop the decline of domestic watch production. Johnson’s proclamation also removed the escape clause so that future amendments would require bilateral negotiations. Additional trade concessions followed when watches became scheduled under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, resulting in a 50% reduction in tariffs on imported watches by 1 January 1972”

So what likely happened was with the reduction in tariffs, Longines had changed their method of importing movements. The watch was probably produced at a very interesting time for Longines. They likely were moving away from using cases made by USA casemakers, so there is a possibility the case was one of the last cases DiVincenzo & Arienti delivered to Longines.

The caseback of the watch has a hand-engraved dedication: “To Pat Love Rose 12-25-72”. The inscription likely points to the sale and gifting of the watch during Christmas, 1972. But hold on, 1972? The movement dates to 1973 doesn’t it? Well there is likely a bit of overlap, but this movement definitely dates to the end of 1972 based on the inscription. Plus, not all sources online are 100% accurate if they don’t come directly from Longines itself. The sentiment behind this inscription is what we would all want in a friend, or even a significant other. An incredible gift with so much meaning.

As mentioned before, diamonds are not for everyone. But watches like this are a great introduction to them, given the understated nature of the watch. The watch also has some interesting details, like the casemaker stamp error and the movement that dates very closely to the reduction in import tariffs that shaped the watch industry for many years prior. These details make the watch fun to wear, and give it additional stories to tell.

Enjoy!