I am new to forums as well as Longines. Read on Hodinkee this is the place to come for more detailed info. I just got married. As part of a joining the family gift from my father-in-law I received a Longines Conquest Automatic which belonged to his father before him. It needs some work done. It runs. It has not been properly taken care of, and I want to have all the work that needs to be done on it to get it as close to mint condition as possible. First.- What am I really holding here? I see that the date is on top and not the side which is what I can find online for the most part. Does any one know what year this is? What is the movement on this likely to be? Is this gold? gold plated? Second.- What is the propper way to handle this? Replace all the parts that are decayed or try to stay true to the original parts? I guess more questions are to come.... ;-)
ulackfocus and the other Longines guys can chime in and know a lot more, but what you've got is one of the best of the Longines dress watches. Its a solid gold case and a solid gold deluxe dial, which means it could potentially clean up nicely in the right hands. You need to make sure whoever handles it understands how to do a sympathetic restoration on a vintage piece well, and the Longines guys will no doubt point you in the right direction. Great watch BTW its all solid gold, the dial and the case
score! your father-in-law has excellent taste. Is that the original strap? You have good timing: take a look at the thread "Admiral vs. Conquest" 3 or 4 thread down. "Ulackfocus" has your identical watch. If you want to see what your watch will look like after some TLC, take a look. This watch needs very little work to make it look brand new. I can't really tell from the photos but it looks like the watch head has the original crystal with the trapezoidal lens. In the right hands, this crystal will polish up and look exactly as it did ~50 years ago. BTW - can you take a picture of the crown and post it? make sure whoever services this watch has the correct wrench tool to remove the case back. Surprisingly, a few runs of the movement through a good ultrasonic cleaner will have this watch running at factory specs. 18k is very soft and most of the "polishing" of this watch should be done by hand. Purists will advise against any polishing at all (save for the crystal). Also - if you plan on giving this watch a lot of wrist time (a very good idea!), then you should get those plastic case back do-hickeys to protect that pretty emblem... dibs? hahahahaha
Wow, what an heirloom! Your watch is one of the best of it's kind. It was made in 1960 and was Longines' top of the line model. I see you've read up on the movement so you know it's one of my favorites. The lugs are a little bent and the watch has already seen the polishing wheel. What area do you live in? If you don't mind shipping it, I know of a couple watchmakers who would do a very nice job cleaning that up.
ulackfocus Thanks very much. At first I didn´t think all much of it. Then I started going through your posts and got excited. I actually live in NJ and I see that you do as well. I thought about shipping it but I actually want to see it open and save some pictures to show my fater-in-law. citizenrich NO DIBS! hahaha Thanks for everyone´s input. I really appreciate it.
If you're close to Philadelphia, Sam Kalter is a good watchmaker who's very sympathetic to vintage and happens to like Longines. http://www.yelp.com/biz/sam-kalter-philadelphia Give him a call and tell him Dennis sent you with a watch he knew you'd like. Steve, member N2FHL, is also a very good watchmaker but he's swamped right now.