Forums Latest Members

The first Longines Conquest

  1. seekingseaquest Feb 18, 2021

    Posts
    2,321
    Likes
    6,135
    New arrival came in this week - a reference 6626 Conquest that I didn’t even know existed until now. Case was a nice bonus..

    According to Longines, it’s the very first Conquest reference and mine is the only one they’ve seen. Longines was able to dig up a photo of the reference in their internal archive, which they sent to me but asked me not to distribute. It included a photo that looked just like my watch - same case style, dial variant/text, and crown. It was hard to tell if the hands were dauphine or more alpha style like mine.

    It houses a 12.68zs manual wind movement. The case back obviously features the same “fish in kelp” medallion as the 9000 references, but the case back is a different (flatter) style given no need to house the automatic movement. Same 35mm size as the automatic references.

    Longines won’t share info on production numbers, but they did tell me that they believe 9218551 to be the first serial number for a Conquest. Mine is 9218694, so assuming all of those movements went into a Conquest, presumably they made at least 150 of these. They also said that they believe all were sold between September and November 1954 to Singapore, Australia, South Africa, Yemen, and UK (mine was November 1, 1954 to Singapore). Also, oddly enough, the number on the back of the lug on mine is exactly 1 digit different from the one inside the caseback.. so maybe the caseback got swapped in it’s early days?

    Has anyone seen others? If so, please share!

    E60D9321-C14E-40E8-A9D6-71CDD5409F2A.jpeg
    E807A22D-65D4-4919-9430-9E72CE5E2183.jpeg 24E7A080-1745-4EFA-B512-053B5AD8372D.jpeg 23CA6EAB-46D2-44A3-A955-B97FD1895E2F.jpeg 3613BBF2-BC6F-41AE-BC31-DBDCBFDA2531.jpeg ACF0380E-2373-4DD9-87EF-C965F754D7C9.jpeg
     
  2. Dan S Feb 18, 2021

    Posts
    18,604
    Likes
    42,875
    That is very cool. :thumbsup:
     
    Mark020 and seekingseaquest like this.
  3. sleepyastronaut Feb 18, 2021

    Posts
    963
    Likes
    1,227
    Lovely piece.

    Are you missing a screw on the train bridge?
     
    seekingseaquest likes this.
  4. LesXL Feb 18, 2021

    Posts
    3,062
    Likes
    30,583
    Beautiful watch!! Great dial, and really like the waterproof :)

    Congrats, mate!
     
    seekingseaquest likes this.
  5. Syrte MWR Tech Support Dept Feb 18, 2021

    Posts
    7,384
    Likes
    20,738
    Cool watch, and very cool info.
    Wear it in good health!
     
    Benbradstock and seekingseaquest like this.
  6. BlueHands Feb 18, 2021

    Posts
    313
    Likes
    783
    Great watch and story, thanks for sharing!
     
  7. Tony C. Ωf Jury member Feb 18, 2021

    Posts
    7,348
    Likes
    24,042
    Great find! And a bizarre anomaly.

    As we all know, the Conquest was, apparently aside from this reference, an automatic movement line, so why would Longines have produced a tiny, manual-wind run?

    Never seen another like it, but would love to see more.
     
  8. Modest_Proposal Trying too hard to be one of the cool kids Feb 18, 2021

    Posts
    2,890
    Likes
    5,960
    Now that is... a treasure.
     
    Robert M likes this.
  9. Servius Feb 18, 2021

    Posts
    243
    Likes
    546
    Thanks for sharing, this is a great find :thumbsup:

    As usual, the Longines archive department should be an inspiration for some others in the industry... :whistling:

    Wear it in good health !
     
  10. DirtyDozen12 Thanks, mystery donor! Feb 19, 2021

    Posts
    2,677
    Likes
    4,592
  11. Benbradstock Feb 19, 2021

    Posts
    328
    Likes
    440
    5DF2919D-E472-43E6-B2E1-57EA45D49FCD.jpeg 2AE4849D-CD47-46CF-AB5A-02A6A852DAFF.jpeg
    Sorry this is not my watch, so I don’t have an extract for it. I have a circa 1954 stainless Conquest for which I got the email extract soon after purchase. Not sure if it will be useful to you though…
     
  12. DirtyDozen12 Thanks, mystery donor! Feb 19, 2021

    Posts
    2,677
    Likes
    4,592
    I would be interested to know the serial number and the date of original invoice.
     
  13. divetime Feb 20, 2021

    Posts
    471
    Likes
    1,598
    intersting info - thanks for sharing. I just looked in my archive extracts, I have a 9.7 million Conquest which was sold 1956 - need to find it... dont know where it is at the moment....
     
    Edited Feb 20, 2021
  14. divetime Feb 20, 2021

    Posts
    471
    Likes
    1,598
    this is another one from 1958 with original papers, Singapore as well

    Long6.jpg
     
    BlueHands, Andsan and iamvr like this.
  15. ck2503 Feb 20, 2021

    Posts
    75
    Likes
    426
    Yes, that’s weird actually. The shape of the case back is made for allowing an automatic movement. And at that time Longines had automatic movements in production.
     
  16. seekingseaquest Feb 20, 2021

    Posts
    2,321
    Likes
    6,135
    Why do you say the case back is made for an automatic movement? It’s quite flat, particularly compared to the 9000 references such as the one @divetime showed.
     
  17. imfagent449 Feb 20, 2021

    Posts
    372
    Likes
    342
    That is just amazing. I love how the the writing for the word "waterproof" curves.
     
  18. seekingseaquest Jan 25, 2022

    Posts
    2,321
    Likes
    6,135
    Quick update on this thread - it seems the alpha hand style on my conquest is most likely correct because some of the earliest 9000 ref Conquests also had the same faceted alpha hands. Here are a few examples. Interestingly all examples I’ve found had the same 3/6/9/12 markers, and the later versions of this dial variant seemed to have dauphine hands.

    7CE07727-3DD0-45A5-BD17-9DF40614D26F.jpeg
    https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Origi...p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network

    E0719A09-5599-4F04-B8CC-5EF01F12A3AE.jpeg
    https://www.instagram.com/p/B-mrHRfHkz-/?utm_medium=copy_link

    3A3F87B3-54C1-405E-B0AB-53BBB23CBD00.jpeg
    https://www.instagram.com/p/B-WdfqoKOSk/?utm_medium=copy_link
     
    Andsan, BlueHands, Zapatta and 4 others like this.
  19. LesXL Jan 25, 2022

    Posts
    3,062
    Likes
    30,583
    Those are stunning!

    Funny enough, I was just seeing that first on eBay earlier today!
     
  20. seekingseaquest Nov 2, 2023

    Posts
    2,321
    Likes
    6,135
    Well, a second 6626 ref manual wind Conquest has appeared. A but uglier than mine :)

    Serial number is 9218824, 273 from the first Conquest serial number as provided by Longines (mine is in the middle). Assuming these were in the same batch, that would mean at least 273 of these were made.

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/1453795959...pREckSIRLG&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPYPurchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network

    IMG_2416.jpeg IMG_2424.jpeg IMG_2425.jpeg IMG_2427.jpeg