I have owned a few Flagships over the years, and this is one of the nicest. As many collectors know, the Flagship was the top-of-the-line manual-wind watch produced by Longines during the 1950s. They are classic, elegant, and distinctive watches, and were powered by the cal. 30L movements, which were arguably the pinnacle of the calibers developed by Longines during the 'golden era' of Swiss watchmaking.

The one that I am offering today is especially nice, in my view, and for two reasons. The first is that it was a French market watch, hence the "Fab. Suisse" notation on the dial. It's a small detail, but I, and more than a few other collectors, happen to really like such dials. The other is that it is in a combination of metals that I believe to have a superb synergy – stainless steel and rose gold. The case is steel, of course, and the dial furniture is gold. The contrast of the two colors are beautiful, and I place extra emphasis on this particular combination when searching the market and considering purchases.

The watch is in very good to excellent overall condition. It is all original to my knowledge. The 35mm screw-back case is unpolished, and the Flagship emblem on the back is still visible, and in better condition than most of the (steel) versions. The eggshell dial shows a very light, evenly spread patina, and has a small scratch just above the center pinion. There is also a very faint trace of radium burn, which is barely noticeable. A pedantic note: LONGINES produced these dials both with and without radium, and there were two radium versions. One featured radium in the hands and above the indexes, while the other, like this one, had only a touch of radium in the hands.

The cal. 30L movement, dating to 1957, is working, and in excellent condition. I did have it serviced a few years ago, but would certainly recommend one for regular wear.

Please note that I am selling the watch HEAD ONLY. However, I am going to sweeten the deal by including a NOS 16mm LONGINES steel buckle! It is identical to this buckle that is for sale through this German dealer for $175:

https://www.jurgensgermany.com/shop/index.php/component/virtuemart/130/3/buckles/longines-vintage-nos-16-mm-buckles_Longines vintage NOS 16Swiss-detail?Itemid=0

I ask $750 (or EUR equivalent) for this very nice set, and will ship from my home in Portugal using tracked shipping. EMS express (at additional cost) is recommended for those living in the U.S., as it will mitigate the recent, sometimes long customs delays, at least to some degree. I can accept PayPal or a bank wire (either in the U.S. or EU).

Feel free to ask any questions!

 

Véry nice watch

 

Beautiful example @Tony C. GLWS. Won’t last long at that price.

 

OHPF! (@Rumar89 knows the market!)

 

Sold! Thanks, as always, to the supportive forum members, Mods, and owners.

 

Beautiful watch. Congrats to buyer and seller.

 

Between this and the one @Kapka sold the other day I have whiplash!

 

Actually, for these dials the radium dots were on the glass ring and generally lost when the glass was changed.

 

If you are suggesting that they were only produced with those crystal rings, that is not true. I have seen far too many without radium above the indexes, and it was typical of many manufacturers to produce both variations on some models. I have also seen near-NOS examples without them.

Furthermore, some references did feature radium on the dials themselves:



source: Mitka's site

https://mitka.co.uk/1961-longines-flagship-calibre-30l/

 

I was just trying to add some information on these watches. I said «these dials », actually you can see it in the add you showed. I didn’t want to create any tension and should have not posted in your FS thread, sorry.

 

No problem. It is an interesting feature, those crystal rings, but yes, better to explore that type of nuance on different threads.