Hello all, I’ve been spending a relatively lazy Sunday digging through some old Longines adverts and something caught my eye (sorry for the poor quality).

The first is a US advertisement from ~1949:




The relevant section here states: “Only this past year, Longines entered its wrist watches in the chronometric trials conducted by the Government Observatories of Neuchâtel, Geneva and Kew-Teddington. At each Observatory, Longines wrist watches won First Prize.”

The second is a Baume advertisement in the U.K., from what I surmise is roughly the same timeframe that seems to verify this information and provides serial numbers:


The serial number associated with the Kew-Teddington entry on the Baume advert (6176046) is also listed in the Observatory Chronometer Database as having won 1st prix at the 1945 Neuchâtel observatory competition in the 34mm category.

Taking this into account, I think it’s fair to say that this is one of the 14.68z/15.68z that @Tony C. did such a phenomenal write up about at the below.

https://omegaforums.net/threads/lady-luck-delivers-an-early-longines-chronometre.11157/

My question, though, is has anyone seen any information on or an example of these Kew Longines? Outside of the advertising, I can’t find anything online.

Rolex, with the Kew A’s, and Omega, with the red star 30T2s, really played up their successes at Kew. Obviously, it’s well documented that Longines didn’t focus to the same extent on chronometer production as either of these brands. But I’m kind of shocked I can’t find anything online other than these advertisements.

Thanks,

Andrew