Wow, where to begin? As several of you from MWR showed up, and since I'm just in the dark apparently, I didn't get to formally introduce myself to many of you that came. For those who don't know what I am talking about, Longines just had the 2023 Collector's Get Together. And wow, was it amazing! I have been to many of the Longines GTGs, and they have been getting better and better each year. But this year, Frank IG:"Vintagefanatic" and Alan IG:"Omegafanman" with the incredible support of the Longines Heritage Staff, made the most memorable GTG to date. There were over 50 participants invited to go this year. Yes, it's invitation only, but not exclusive so just need to make friends and love Longines and you're usually in. Now, I'm going to try to give you a summary of what happened and it might be a little marketing, but hey Longines and the LonginesFarm put so much effort into this, this is my way of saying thanks and also for letting OF know what happened. I am sure I am not the first or last to write about this so bare with me So these three gentlemen are the main people that really made this event happen. Frank is on the left, Daniel Hug that is the top executive from Longines is in the center, and our buddy Alan is on the right Now Daniel is not a behind the scenes executive, he really knows his history and that includes WW2 warplanes, campaigns, soldiers, etc. He's pretty impressive with his knowledge so make sure of your subject area before starting a debate with him As you can see, he gave several talks during the three days. I along with a large room full of people learned quite a bit about aviation, chronometers, timing instruments, and the entire evolution of timekeeping and what Longines had accomplished. Also, Daniel talked about the Majetek and showed us a color film of the Czech pilots that joined the RAF. We got to learn about the differences in flying tactics and see how the pilots prepared for missions including getting ready to scramble into the air. And we got to see some of the goodies! There were many presenters such as Vefa on Turkish market Longines watches and details about the one "Missing Link" in the evolution of the Longines Weems. So as many of you who were listening in, Vefa explained that Longines made a watch for the Turkish market that automatically adjusts to a local timezone that sets 12:00 at sun down. Yes, that means it has to slightly adjust everyday and also compensate for longer and shorter days plus location. I don't know, I'd need more details to be able to explain it. Vefa and Longines are the experts on this watch. Wow then after that Andy Tolley announced to us his discovery of one of the first few Longines Lindberghs Hour Angles. If you know this watch, then you can clearly see this one is different from anything else you have seen. It looks like this one below, but it is a different color. Here it is! But it wasn't all lectures. We had other fun too! This is Henderson's H1, we saw all of them working from H1 to H4 at the Greenwich KEW Observatory! And we saw airplanes, lots and lots of airplanes from IWM Duxford. And some people got to sit in the pilot's seats of these planes that you are not normally allowed to get into the cockpits. Like this Vulcan Bomber. Frank don't touch that button! I myself got special access to...you guessed it...Duxfold's very own untouched authentic Mitsubishi Zero A6M. I reunited my Longines Weems issued to the Imperial Japanese Navy and the aircraft data plates from 5 warplanes together. We even put the plates and watch on the airplane. Special thanks to Darren Harbar who was our professional photographer, with his help and Alan's help, I got special access to the Zero. What am I leaving out, oh yes, the watches!!! I think that was all of them, but hard to tell. More kept coming and some people kept picking up the watches before we could take our pictures. And then, there was one gentleman who decided to categorize and alphabetize all of them. No I am not kidding. So you can see we had great fun and we saw everything under the Sun related to Horology and Aviation during this trip. Longines, Frank, Alan, Andy, Oliver, etc put so much effort into this! Lot of planning, coordination, research, and great food! And finally, the collectors presented Longines with this authentic vintage poster with our names on it. There were also more side events thanks to Mike Woods and others. Many thanks to Mike Woods also! I made a lot of new friends and met my old friends too.
Thanks for the writeup and photos. That Turkish pocket watch is very intriguing. I would be curious to know more details about how it works and its movement.
Trust me, it's a mystery until someone gets a hold of one. We have recent photos but it hasn't been looked at by us in detail
Dear Seiji and all others, what an event it was! For me the best watch event I ever attended due to the group of people, the beautiful location we have been and the great lectures we got presented by Longines and collectors such as Andy Tolley, Vefa, Oliver, Paul, Zaf and of course Daniel Hug and Nicola from Longines. I would like to also emphasize that it was very brave of Longines to allow collectors to tell so many stories about the history of the brand. The knowledge of this group sets this event apart from other events where I have been. So many collectors who have seen it all but on the other hand we’re so humble and willing to share their knowledge. Everybody was willing to share stories and grow as a group. Really remarkable. Looking forward to meet you all in the nearby future! some pics in random order! And Seiji many thanks for the excellent write up
Looks like a truly amazing time, and cool to learn more about the behind-the-scenes on this thread - I’ve been loving the IG content generated over the last couple days!
I don't know who is okay showing there well educated faces so I chose some pictures that's hard to tell who it is, and I am that bad of a photographer with a phone But those who know these great collectors will recognize each other. And as you get a hint, we got many of the most famous collectors to make the trip fantastic! Also you can see a bit of Mike Woods TheOldWatchShop T.O.W.S. UK giving us an amazing walking tour of the places to buy watches. I'd show more but there were a lot of R brand related content in the Mayfair district. And of course if you follow me you know what I did below with my historical persons Longines watches. https://omegaforums.net/threads/anyone-have-a-historical-watch.145564/
Also, I wanted to mention that Longines had professional photographers and videographers there at the events so look forwards to a professional documentary of the event. I am sure you will enjoy it. I witnessed several collectors filmed in individual interviews.
Thanks to the Longines team for inviting us and it was great collectors travelled from all over the world to be at the event... Thanks @Seiji and @Omegafanman for starting topics on the " Montres Longines " event... an interesting 4 days in London ! It was great to meet many people in person and see & hold some of those large Longines Weems in my hands! Being after hours "alone" in the museum, observatory and at the huge Duxford hangars had a bit "" A Night at the Museum "" feeling Certainly looking forward to that documentary and even more to the Longines book that was mentioned !!! .
An impressive array of watches and enthusiasts- a number of which seem familiar- thanks for posting @Seiji. Agree that Turkish market watch is wild, are you saying Vefa didn’t have that example in hand or that he doesn’t own it?
If I understood Vefa, there are a small number of these Touran watches in existence. Vefa doesn't have one and Longines may not have the details on how it works. So we asked how does it work, but no one shared the answer to the question.
From all of this wonderful experience, I have high hopes really. Longines is traveling again and supporting vintage Longines and Longines Heritage. I don't know what is coming but I look forwards to where Longines will go in the future! I am just looking into a crystal ball here in a London shop, trying to see if we're going to Europe or Asia next year
Without hijacking the topic, during this stay in London I visited all 18th century Maritime clocks by John Harrison and Larcum kendall. Please allow me to remind everyone about the DVD which shows the remarkable history of " Longitude " . . I have posted some good photos of all these clocks at: https://omegaforums.net/threads/longitude-book-review.86056/page-4
@Syrte I also asked Vefa and he advised there is no answer on numbers, very few survived for sure. He has studied the movement and is conducting more research …. So watch this space I guess.