I like vintage ephemera, and am particularly chuffed about this piece. It's likely from the '40s, as evidenced by my favorite of all of the fonts ever used by Longines, is a touch over 10" wide, and appears to be solid copper!

 

Very cool get, congrats! (also a favorite font for me...)

 

I've always appreciated the company's winged hourglass logo as a poignant reminder of the passing of time.

 

Nice score Tony, I was watching that one but forgot to bid in the end. It certainly looks to be a substantial piece.

 

Somehow I never realized that's what it was until just now...

 

Great typeface. Fantastic piece. Just hope it remains unpolished.

 

According to this site: " Longines winged hourglass logo has been in use in one form or another since 1867. The current Art Deco style version came into use in 1942. The brand name Longines was filed with Switzerland’s Federal Office of Intellectual Property in 1880. The logo was registered with the same office in 1889. The brand name and logo were filed with the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property (which would become the World Intellectual Property Organization) in 1893. All in all, this makes Longines the oldest brand name registered with the WIPO still in use today."

(thanks)

 

Man cave-bound for sure. Great score Tony!

 

Thanks for all of your kind comments!

As you can see, the font in this dated advert corresponds to that of my recent acquisition.

 

Not sure about that, Gator. Here's a view of the back side, and the corrosion strikes me more as that found on copper than bronze.

I agree that it isn't pure, so that was a mistake on my part. But I think, especially given the color, that it's more likely to be a copper alloy than bronze. Plenty of copper (alloy) pennies around!

 

Nice grab! My Conquest case back approves... and shows this font was still in use in the mid 50's.

 

Longines had some cool logo,s over the years
Great pick up....

 

Diiiiiiiibs

 

Super nice! Awesome find for sure

 

Thanks. So "bronze" is simply one type of copper alloy, along with brass, etc. The reason that I associate the sign more with copper than bronze is because my experience with old bronze is largely with sculpture, and, after long periods of time, the patina is almost invariably darker and more brown, yellow, or greenish.

Having researched a bit thanks to your input, it seems that, generally speaking:

"Variations in the color of copper alloys stem primarily from differences in chemical composition. Unalloyed coppers have a red tone. The addition of other elements causes a change toward yellow, bronze, silver or gray. These colors can then develop patinas when exposed to air."

So, while you are almost certainly correct that the sign falls into the "copper alloy" category, I would infer from the color that it does have a relatively high copper content.

Here is a useful chart of the 40 copper alloys "regularly" available in the U.S. The only type bronze that approach the reddish color of the sign is "Phosphor Bronze".

http://www.metalreference.com/Forms_Copper_Alloy.html

 

I gotta have that apppied logo on my watches. It's totally cool!