If you had the opportunity to enjoy the Kentucky Derby last month and are a fan of watches, you likely noticed that Longines is their official time keeper. Now, the Kentucky Derby really has very little do to with this watch, but I think it demonstrates the prowess of Longines. Throughout their history, they have produced exceptional quality watches; in both accuracy and in beauty.

Despite the title of this video and article, this is not a referenced Longines watch. The watches Longines sold to the USA market rarely had references, but the 105-818 is the case number seen on the inside caseback of the watch. This Longines was manufactured in 1966. The watch has a square, 10k yellow gold filled case that is in good condition. The case has a two piece construction; one piece includes the top of the case that integrates with the crystal. The bottom of the case integrates with the lugs, and the movement of the watch sits inside of the case. This type of construction makes it very easy to service the watch, as access to the dial and movement is simple.

The lugs are short, and unusually angle up towards the top of the case. This design can be seen on other watches from this era. When looking at the watch straight on, the lugs look like any other ‘tank’ style watch. But the side profile of the watch is where this design comes to life. The watch also has a signed, Longines crown.

The silver dial has a nice sunburst effect with applied hour markers and Longines logo. The watch has gold-tone hands, hour markers and subsidiary seconds hand at 6 o’clock. The simplicity of the watch and its complications makes it quite understated. But paying attention to the smaller details like the lug design, and really high quality yet simple dial brings the luxurious nature of this watch to life.

Looking closer at details on the watch, one will see a stamp on the caseback of the watch that says “10 K G Filled” indicating what material the case is made of. Additionally, there is stamp that is a circle with a “L” inside of it. From what we know, this stamp is an indication of the casemaker for this watch. Based on this stamp, the case was likely made by the Longines-Wittnauer group.

More details come to life when one looks at the inside of the caseback. The caseback is stamped with the Longines-Wittnauer logo. 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.

Additionally, one will see the case metal description, the same casemaker stamp of the “L” inside the circle, the case number (or what we are describing as the reference number) as well as the serial number of the case. As mentioned before, the “L” likely indicates that the case was made by Longines. Longines worked with many different casemakers in the USA to produce their cases, so it is quite cool that this case was made by Longines themselves.

The watch runs on the caliber 370 manual wind movement. The caliber 370 was launched in 1966 and has a tonneau shape to it. These movements were used in many different watches from Longines. One thing to consider is how the movement sits in the case. The lower portion of the case has an indentation where the movement sits in. Many collectors favour this type of design so that the movement sits tightly in the case, and won’t be impacted as much by shock (although shock will always have an impact on watches).

The movement is a 10.25 x 9 ligne, 17 jewel movement that has 49 hours of power reserve oscillating at a frequency of 19,800 vph. The manual wind movement is also nicely finished, as all Longines movement from this era are. The balance wheel bridge is stamped with the import code “LXW”. This inscription was the import code used by the Longines Wittnauer group when they imported movements from Switzerland to the USA. So, it is likely this movement was put together in Switzerland, shipped and imported to the USA. Additionally, if we combine this information with the fact that Longines likely made the case, we know that the movement and case were married together by Longines-Wittnauer in the USA.

Most would consider this Longines as more of a dress watch. But styles are evolving, and so it is not uncommon to see these types of watches being worn more frequently than just at black tie events. The understated nature of the watch makes it fly under the radar, but the wearer, and perhaps more observant individuals, will understand how great of a watch this is.

Enjoy!