Assistance with Longines ID

Hi all,
I happened upon this vintage Longines. It looks quite clean and perhaps original, but unfortunately, the seller is unable to take the case back off due to lacking tools. I'm still a relative newcomer to this hobby, so please excuse any lack of knowledge or misuse of terminology.

The seller says it's a 12.68z movement, and the case diameter is 33.5 mm. The seller states the watch has been serviced within this past year, and it perhaps dates to the 1940s, but I can't be sure. I'm unable to find information on its reference number, as this may be hidden behind the snap caseback. I'm finding many watches having this movement where there is an absence of a 6 numeral (due to the seconds dial) but none in which the 6 numeral is segmented, as shown in the images below. Any help would be much appreciated!

I know I should probably be a bit wary because of the lack of movement pictures, but I really enjoy the patina on this dial. Thanks again!

Looks original and definitely dates to the time period. The 12.68Z was a really high quality movement, the only pitfall being a lack of shock protection.

Hi and welcome. I had this on my watchlist. The seller had it up for auction starting at $285 but it didn't sell. Looks like he has it back up but starting at $300 which seems odd.

I enjoy the patina on this watch as well. I was turned off by the hands though as they appear re-lumed and don't match the numerals.

You're not likely to find a reference number for this watch. If you could see the movement, there would be a serial number and you could date the watch within a year or two using that number.

Agreed the caliber 12.68z is a great movement. Some do have shock protection though.
http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&&2uswk&Longines_12_68Z&

If you're concerned about the movement, I would ask the seller for a receipt or reference from the watchmaker who last serviced it. They should be able to confirm it was serviced within the last year.

Possibly inside case back you find an order number with 5 digits but no reference number. You can get this number from Longines archive. The watch is nice, I would date it around mid-40s. Anything matches. Hands had been relumed for sure.

Thanks for the info everyone. Now that I look at it, I agree that the hands are definitely re-lumed. That coupled with the lack of movement pictures is nudging me toward dropping this one. Shame, I really enjoyed the patina on the dial. Oh well!

On the topic of hands, I have a question regarding lengths of hands. There's another watch I'm looking at with minute and second hands that upon a close inspection look to be too short and long, respectively (see below), but perhaps I'm looking too much into this. If someone has any info on this or knows of a source to look at, please let me know, as I'm having trouble finding information on this.

The lengths are correct. What makes you think they're wrong? The minute hand is supposed to reach somewhere in the minute track, which it does. And the second hand should reach the second track, which it does. You could argue the second hand goes slightly over the edge but I wouldn't say that's too long.

I saw the listing for this watch as well. It's an interesting dial but the 8 and some of the other numbers have a strange smudging that I don't care for.

Just making sure for the sake of getting better at spotting these sorts of things. I wasn't sure of the tolerances things like hands have in terms of reaching an exact location on a dial. The eight doesn't bother me too, too badly. I enjoy a nice rugged dial. Anyways, thanks for your input!

This watch is really nice for that price it is offered. It looks overall good, dial is original with interesting patina on it, hand are matching,
as well as the case. The crown could possibly be a replacement, hard to say with listing pictures. Unfortunately seller is on the other end of the world,
that bothers me in case of shipping and so on.