What are we looking at here? I have never seen a 294 with a case like this. The back is not the typical medallion design, and the text inside the case back looks too new. Usually on 294's a number stamped inside the case back corresponds to a number stamped into the back of the lugs, but these lugs have no numbers. The power reserve portion of the dial looks suspect as well, and the second hand is clearly not original. The movement is photographed with the rotor covering the caliber number. Is this caliber now being faked?:
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The 294 looks fine - it's the caseback that's wonky.

 

The case top does not look right either. The lugs are too thick. Maybe it's a re-cased 294?

 

Pictures of the watch in question:

 

btw... whats with the 294s used in non power reserve longines watches? did they sometimes substitute the 291 with the 294s

 

The bridge was labeled 294, but it wasn't a power reserve caliber. A factory franken direct from Longines - Anders / andsan did the leg work and found this out with help from the Longines archives.

 

here we seem to have another factory franken ... actually a rather intersting watch ... clearly a "conquest" without spelling it out on the dial, with different hands and no fancy medallon on the backside ... but other than that - clearly a "down-marketed" conquest.

cal. marked as 294 ...

- could you tell by the (crappy pic) if the movement is - in its functionality - a (mislabelled) 291 or a fully functional 294?
- add on Q: when were the 29x produces? were they really only produced for like 2-3 years between 59-62?

 

Here is my Conquest with serial # dating to ~ 1959 with a 294...

 

So there is a true factory Franken, since it is clearly a 291. Interesting

 

Nice, unpolished lugs, btw.

 

Could it be possible that Longines produced too many 294 parts, overestimating sales? There are an awful lot of vintage ads for the 294s out there. Perhaps the watch never sold as well as they expected, and so they reused the parts in other calibers.

 

that was my hypothesis at the beginning of this thread ... lets not forget this were the 50ies ... so there was basically no "scientific demand forecast and supply change" ... and nobody (on the consumer side) had ANY idea what movement is in a given watch - so they could not have cared less... (yep, the internets are fairly young)

So just put the 500 or so 150hp engines in the car that should only have a 130hp engine ... after all, who is going to complain ;-)

cheers, Al

 

Yes
I was in contact with Longines for three years ago about this and they assumed it could be that they had too many Power Serve with 294 in stock. They took away the power reserve indicator and switching the dial.
The workers are dead so there is no one to ask to get a clear answer how it is.
/Anders

 

I guess its not too unlike what happens with my Ebel diver



powered by a 2892-a2 but the watch has no date function ... however if I forward the hour past 24, I can clearly hear the movement making "click" ... I am not sure if it has a date wheel under the dial or no ...

so stuff like this is still been done 50 years later ;-)

cheers, Al

 

Some months ago, I bought a 294 (without power reserve) from Canada with exactly that case back...




I did it just for the case back, actually, and to try to find out whether the 294 had the power reserve indicator mechanism still on, or if Longines took it away when they monsterized the watches.

 

And... does it have the power reserve mechanism still on?