As I continue to be a very active buyer in the market, I am offering another fine, vintage watch from my collection in order to bring a bit of balance to the books. This one is a very uncommon and early cal. 22A Longines automatic. The unpolished, 34mm snap-back case is made of 18k pink gold, perhaps leaning a bit more towards red than pink. The case is exceptional in a couple of respects. First, the lugs are slightly curved and finely beveled. I have never seen this design on any watch, and they are both elegant and beautiful without being overly ornate. Secondly, the bezel, instead of laying flush with the side of the case, actually sits on the case, with 1-1.5mm of the case extending outwards underneath it. This lends a very interesting, unusual, and attractive complexity to the watch, similar in some respects to more obvious stepped cases (which are valued highly, as it happens, by vintage Longines collectors). In terms of condition, the case looks really good to the naked eye, but under magnification a few small flaws in the form of nicks and very light scratches can be discerned. All but one of the few, small nicks are on the back side of the lugs, and could easily be polished out if desired without any meaningful loss of integrity to the case. I would be inclined to leave it alone, and expect that most collectors (and even dealers) would do the same, as the flaws are arguably trivial. The dial is generally in excellent shape, though a couple of tiny spots can be discerned under magnification. The applied gold markers are nearly flawless. There is a slight touch of discoloration to the hour and minute hands that can be seen under magnification, but it does not distract to my (naked) eye, and is typical of the vast majority of older vintage watches, as the gold content used in the hands tended to be lower than other parts of the watch. The design is fairly typical of late '40s and '50s dress watches, though the word "automatic", placed with the help of a fine curve above the sub-dial, is not very common, especially on vintage Longines. The cal. 22A was Longines' first automatic. They began production in 1945, and this one dates to 1948. The movement is in excellent condition, and in fact I've personally never seen one in such good condition, though to be fair I haven't really held that many in my hand. My broad view of the watch is that it is a very attractive, and exceptionally well preserved early automatic. It is clearly a very uncommon reference, and, as mentioned, I have never before seen this type of case. It wears a bit larger than 34mm in my view, but take into account when viewing the photos below that my wrists are small. While it is a bit of a cliché, I guarantee that the watch will look even better in person! Pricing it was a tricky exercise. While I am certain that it would be priced significantly higher at most dealers, I will accept $1350, including insured shipping to the U.S. and Europe. Please note that the watch is with me in Lisbon, Portugal, so no worries about customs duties for European buyers. FedEx insured is a option (I use Parcel Pro for insurance), but the buyer would have to absorb most of that cost. Bank wire or Paypal, and I'd be willing to split the fee on the latter. Feel free to ask any questions. Regards, Tony C.
Guys, somebody here HAS to buy this. If I was in purchase mode it would have never even been listed. What a watch!
Who got this? ...certainly hopeful it was one of our 'own' (i.e., I want to drool on my keyboard again!)
Now sold. Thanks to the forum and its supportive members! And given how quickly the last two that I have listed have sold, I might have to re-think my pricing strategy.
If the buyer suffers from a sudden attack of buyer's remorse, I'm willing to put him out of his misery.
The buyer will be very pleasantly surprised by his new Longines. Tony C.'s watches are always better than advertised, and terrific values at the selling price. Lucky dude!
