A Longines single-button chronograph whose hands never stop: a light press on the pusher holds them for a reading, a full press sends them back to zero and straight on again. Steel, 32mm, with its black BREVET dial spotted by age.
The dial is glossy black, printed around the edge with a spiral tachymeter on a base of 1000 that starts at 60 beneath the twelve and winds inward to 1000. The cream Arabic numerals are large and open, the hour and minute hands are polished steel leaves, and the small seconds carries a gilt hand. The black has aged in patches, with brown and gold spotting spread across the field and heaviest in the upper half, while the printing, the numerals and the scales remain sharp. It is unrestored.
- 1The signatureLONGINES, printed beneath the twelve.
- 2The red minute handTurns once an hour against the inner track, so a run of up to sixty minutes is read from the centre.
- 3Chronograph secondsThe thin steel hand runs continuously; a light press holds it, a full press sends it back to zero.
- 4Spiral tachymeterBase 1000, starting at 60 beneath the twelve and winding inward to 1000.
- 5BREVETThe patent mark, with a small cross, above the small seconds at 6.
The case is plain and well proportioned, with long tapered lugs, a snap back with no engraving and a domed acrylic crystal. The rectangular pusher sits above a knurled crown on the right-hand side. At 32mm across and 39mm lug to lug it wears as a compact watch, closer to a dress watch on the wrist than to the large pilots' versions of the same movement. The steel shows honest use, light scratches most visible on the back, with the edges still full and sharp.
The dial is signed LONGINES beneath the twelve and marked BREVET, with a small cross, above the seconds dial: the patent mark Longines printed on its flyback chronographs. Documented examples with this black dial, BREVET mark and tachymeter, including one dated by the Longines archive to 1941, place it in the early to mid 1940s. It comes on a lizard-grain leather strap fastened with a steel pin buckle stamped with the Longines winged hourglass.
- Maker
- Longines
- Model
- Single-button flyback chronograph, five-hand
- Calibre
- 12.68Z, manual wind, 17 jewels
- Functions
- Continuously running flyback chronograph (central seconds and central minute), small seconds at 6
- Scale
- Spiral tachymeter, base 1000
- Case
- Stainless steel, snap back
- Case diameter
- 32mm
- Lug to lug
- 39mm
- Crystal
- Domed acrylic
- Dial
- Black, signed Longines, marked Brevet
- Strap
- Brown lizard-grain leather, Longines signed steel pin buckle
- Year
- C.1940s
- Box and papers
- None
- Warranty
- 12 months, mechanical, through Vintage Times Amsterdam from date of delivery
12-month mechanical warranty through Vintage Times Amsterdam from date of delivery.
