Well, after picking up a Flagship cal 285 from @ulackfocus I caught the bug for vintage Longines. Picked up an 18k Flagship 30L off the Bay. The dial has what looks to be sun damage, but for the price I basically stole it. Now just waiting on the Longines archive extract info.

 

Congrats, was watching that as one, gd price indeed!

 

Two recent pickups, 30L Sport Chief off ebay from Norway, the other a "Henry Clay" with a 23Z circa 1950 from a local antique mall, the kind where lots of folks have little booths of old stuff for sale. Had just been serviced and a new band. Original owner picked it up in the Navy. Seemed ecstatic I knew what it was, what movement it had, and planned on wearing it on a regular basis.



Just got this one back from service after finding at a garage sale about 3 weeks ago. Seriously. I mean, does that ever really happen? Longines from this vintage often with 17 mm lugs, but I have a bunch of spare bands in this size due to my 1950's Longines fetish/cuckoo for cocoa puffs. This is a thin, real croc band in purple. "Diamond Arrow", circa 1957-8, reliable 19.4 movement, 14K case. Blingy diamonds not usually my thing but I will make an exception and wear this on occasion.

 

Very cool, loads of patina!

...that engraving on the back is fantastic!

Very nice snag...

 

Fascinating! But I'm confused on the dial.

Is the 3-diamond arrowhead the hour hand?

 

Yes. Longines produced a variety of mystery dial watches in the late 50's at varying price points in regards to case and dial materials.
http://vintagewatchresources.com/ has many of these you can look up and features the "diamond argosy" on their homepage, which is similar to mine but with a few more diamonds and no arabic numerals if you watch to bump the bling up a bit.

 

OK, thanks, I'm not so confused now!...

I didn't see yours as a Mystery dial at first... an interesting variation .

Great find!

 

Well, now I know why the dial has such... "patina" at least. Apparently it was invoiced in March 1960 to Longines' importer in Panama. My guess is it was sold to a U.S. service member stationed in the Canal Zone.

 

Picked this up recently - a 1965 Longines Grand Prize Admiral Automatic.

 

Sweet! ...very cool '6', '9', and '12'! Longines did some amazing things with their designs in those days... definitely their peak years, IMO...

Congratulations.

And 'Dibs, please, if you ever decide to move it!

Looks like it has the 'Big Date' (edit) cal.343 OR cal. 345 inside...

Here's my only cal. 345, a Flagship, followed by my cal. 342 who's dial and hands remind me of yours:



cal. 342:

 

Very nice!

 

Just picked up my first 30CH. Here's a quick shot! Unfortunately, the chronograph is not working properly and the seller has agreed to get it fixed/serviced.... sigh... hope this doesn't take long

 

Thanks, and totally agreed - 60's for me is when their design team was just killing it! Also, I believe this has the 343 with the big date.

By the way, love how clean your cal 345 is. Just beautiful!

 

Nice looking watch! I have a recent post regarding parts for your movement in the Longines section as well. I also call dibs!

 

New Longines in the ConElPueblo stable (Miss ElPueblo, that is):




After a case clean-up and a crystal polish, it ended up looking pretty decent. Now on the hunt for one or two good looking 12mm straps.






That tiny movement is gorgeous! The finish on the bridges and elsewhere is above anything else I have in my collection, I believe.




Looking at a serial number table, it would appear that it's from 1947, so 70 years old this year. Not bad, not bad at all

 

Great looking watch! Cool movement too. Initially thought was an 8ln/8.68n but cannon pinion support jewel lacks chaton and some other minor differences. Looked up in Linder book and it appears to be an 8.68abc, produced as a thinner variant of the 8.68n to better suit thinner watches. First produced in 1941, so time frame in line with your watch. This movement not listed in ranfft.de archive. Very cool.

 

Bunch of nice 8.68xxx based smaller watches on the forum lately, so thought I'd put up two nicer ones I own. I believe the round is a "Washington" and the rectangular a "Lincoln". Both in 14K and could be considered Frankenwatches because I replaced the 8LN movements in both because neither worked when I purchased. Bought watches for scrap gold price then swapped out movements with spares I had (both +/- 1 year from serial number on movements that came with watches) as well as a NOS crystal for the Lincoln (glass, not acrylic, for some reason, but just as fragile). Still looking for a nice tapered band, as the rose gold-filled band that came with it was quite unattractive.

 

Two of the last three days wore Longines.

 

Very nice movement ConElPueblo!
I think Longines and Cyma made during that time several high end movements that are still underestimated. A real pleasure to look at and to service!