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The Longines story starts
back in 1832 when Auguste Agassiz opened a small 'comptoir' (workshop) in St.
Imier. One of Auguste's sisters married Marc Francillon, a shopkeeper from
Lausanne and in 1934 they had a son, Ernest Francillon. At that time
watch-making in the area used the skills of people working away from the
'comptoir', often at home. In 1866, Ernest Francillon constructed a factory on
fields at "Es Longines", near to St. Imier, and brought all of the watch-making
skills under one roof - this was the first "Longines factory".
Anyone concerned with the history of Longines of Saint-Imier is
bound to plunge into the most thrilling adventures, which have become the stuff
of legend of modern times.
Longines developed aviators’ watches and cockpit
instruments.
Longines led the field as time-keepers to the world of sports,
developing precision stop watches for athletes. Longines was at the Olympic
Games and ensured that athletes’ performances were accurately recorded.
But it is not
merely to its top-quality range that this watch-making firm owes its greatness
and importance. By the time Longines was celebrating the 100th anniversary of
the registration of the brand-name and logotype - the winged hour-glass - in 1967, the Saint-Imier watchmakers had made 15 million watches and
sold them all. For all these reasons, therefore, Longines is a virtually
inexhaustible mine of reasonably priced collectors’ items, ranging from pocket
chronometers to classic wrist-watches and milestones of quartz
technology.
Please
remember that this is an unofficial
account of the history of this company,
Should
you happen to find any mistakes with
our information then please contact
the webmaster.
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