Longines white gold dress watch

This is a super 1950s Longines dress watch in white gold, with diamond hour markers. Curiously it feels rather understated, I think because the case is white gold and the diamonds aren’t brilliant-cut so don’t sparkle excessively.

Longines are one of my favourite brands, in mid 20th century they produced superb quality watches with very well engineered movements with attractive dials and cases.

This watch was made for the American market, the serial number on the back dates it to around 1957 and it’s a great embodiment of post-war American affluence and confidence (think Mad Men, or Goodfellas!) The watch is powered by the Longines 22a calibre automatic movement one of the first in-house Longines automatic movements. It’s slightly unusual in having the seconds at 6 o’clock, rather than a centre seconds hand, I believe that this was in line with the dress-watch market that Longines were aiming for with this watch (centre-seconds being reserved for tool-watches)

White gold is a rather unusual material for the case and makes for harmonious blend with the diamonds and the silvered dial.  The case was made in the USA in order to avoid paying import duty,by Schwab and Wuischpard (S&W), who made cases under licence for a number of Swiss brands.

The movement has been fully serviced and is keeping excellent time, comes with a lightly worn Camel leather strap that looks just right with the watch. Ready to wear and enjoy.  

Case diameter (excluding winding crown): 33mm
Case material: 14 carat white gold
strap width: 17mm
time keeping: grade A