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Longines Reference Books

Larry S
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All....researching the Longines forums I find lots of excellent reference threads and older discussions on books that indicate there is no Sala or MWO for Longines. . Is this still true?

Thanks
 
Syrte
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Surprised to hear. As far as I know Goldberger is the reference.
Hs someone debated that?
 
WatchVaultNYC
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Would love to get one. As far as I have read in the forums there are references, but not any as definitive as MWO. Would love to hear different
 
Larry S
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Syrte Syrte
Surprised to hear. As far as I know Goldberger is the reference.
Hs someone debated that?
Yea ...not into the detail like MWO or Sala.
 
dodo44
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+1 for Goldberger. Marozzi and Toselli is another reference but it is full of redials. I believe that Goldberger has a few redials too and it is heavy on chronographs.
 
Syrte
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WatchVaultNYC WatchVaultNYC
Would love to get one. As far as I have read in the forums there are references, but not any as definitive as MWO. Would love to hear different
What do you mean by "definitive"? I've never heard anyone dispute the authority of Goldberger. One possible flaw compared to Sala is that it "only" has 175 watches or so IIRC, whereas Sala has about 300 + all of the additional references from the archive.
However everything I've heard is that UG until recently was a relatively obscure brand whereas Longines was an industry leader and a giant-- harder to document and sum up I would think.
So in a way, a selection like Goldberger's may well be doing a service of highlighting notable models. It's not as large a sum as AJTT for sure, but I've seen experts note that AJTT contains a number of mistakes regarding Omega military watches for example (I've found one mistake myself), so nothing's ever perfect...
Also MWO only focuses on variants of a single watch... It's not all of Omega.

dodo44 dodo44
I believe that Goldberger has a few redials too and it is heavy on chronographs.
I've noticed only a couple of redials in Goldberger but admit I haven't looked at any watch in detail after the 1940s 😁
Edited:
 
WatchVaultNYC
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Syrte Syrte
What do you mean by "definitive"? I've never heard anyone dispute the authority of Goldberger. One possible flaw compared to Sala is that it "only" has 175 watches or so IIRC, whereas Sala has about 300 + all of the additional references from the archive.
However everything I've heard is that UG until recently was a relatively obscure brand whereas Longines was an industry leader and a giant-- harder to document and sum up I would think.
So in a way, a selection like Goldberger's may well be doing a service of highlighting notable models. It's not as large a sum as AJTT for sure, but I've seen experts note that AJTT contains a number of mistakes regarding Omega military watches for example (I've found one mistake myself), so nothing's ever perfect...

Maybe a poor choice of words. Was thinking "comprehensive". Check this thread from 2013:
https://omegaforums.net/threads/john-goldbergers-longines-book.5972/

I've never read it, but for my own purposes I am looking for something that's in the lines of MWO, or the Mondani books for Rolex, or the Israni book for Tudor, or to a lesser extent the Rossler book for Zenith - a catalog. At $600+ new and $300 used on Amazon, not something I would jump to buy
https://www.amazon.com/Longines-Watches-Giampiero-Negretti/dp/8889431407
 
billving
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I have goldberger and have used it on occasion but there are so many case dial combos it's not always easy to find ones that match. I also have Paul whites chrono opus but it doesn't have a lot of detail, nice pics and something about each piece but that's about it. Another expensive one though
 
WatchVaultNYC
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Syrte Syrte
600 new? I've seen them offered for 90€, and was lucky to find one for even less .
Well, point it to me man!
 
omg smstr
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I've got the Goldberger ealier this year for 89€ here :
http://www.watchprint.com/detail_en.php?catID=1143
It's not available at the moment but you can keep an eye or even contact them as they are really nice and helpful people.
For instance, I've ordered a book (in english) from them and before shipping they contacted me to offer the same book in french that I didn't see in their catalogue (I'm french)
 
billving
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I paid $94.30 and it was through Amazon, through a seller. Supply and demand but be patient and one should come up.
 
U
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I have the Goldberger book, and while it might be a little useful for 40's military watches and some chronographs, it is by no means near a complete reference nor is it 100% accurate of sure. There's been debate over a few watches having refinished dials.

Personally, it's one fistful of dollars I wish I had back.

Now, as far as calibers go, "At the Heart of an Industrial Vocation" by Patrick Linder is well worth it. He doesn't do actual watch pictures like AJTT does so it's not good for seeing what-calibers-went-in-what-case-references-behind-what-dials-with-what-crowns.
 
Syrte
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Gee, if I can sell my Italian version I'm happy to buy your English one!
40s Longines, military watches and chronographs are all I need.
 
WatchVaultNYC
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OK, how useful is the text? The non-english versions are priced significantly lower.
 
Lépine
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I would like to know also if the picture are good enough reason to pay $90.
 
Lépine
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I just need a reference to know what is a correct dial and case for a particular reference. Something to help identify the watch and then go for further info onto the internet. Seems this will do that for Chronos.

Thanks Syrte for the link. I bought a copy in German (if it was Italian or French, I could get the gist of the text, German... should have studied more in school!)
Edited:
 
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