Which is the rarest watch you’ve ever owned?

I haven't spent much time on this one. I would like to know if there is another one. Normally I would go no where near a mismatched watch. But, has anyone ever even read about a Longines in a Finger designed Hermetic case? This is not a complete watch. There are no pictures or mention of a watch like this. Archive Extract proves the model exists. Rolex, IWC, Eberhard
are some of the brands known to have made these hermetic watches.

This watch is absolutely bonkers. Longines wanted to make a statement and so created these watches which unlike a typical gold pocket watch, these feel like lead weights. Several were shown on exhibitions and a few were presented to British and Arabian royalty. I have number 19 of 20. They were also available through the boutiques if you really liked pocket watches. It has one of the finest modern Longines movements recently created.

https://omegaforums.net/threads/longines-l7-equestrian-pocket-watch-awards.84260/

Longines said only 10 made and is in the Legendary Watches book. This is 7/10. 1/10 and 2/10 have also been found. This model is the only Chrome over Silver Lindbergh. It is speculated that these were ordered for Regia Aeronautica.



It is known that early 1940s that Regia Aeronautica did special order Lindberghs.

December 1975 Seiko 6139-6005 Bicentennial. A Seiko factory-printed special sold at PXs in Asia for the 1976 American Bicentennial. Only 2 have appeared on the Internet, and I've heard a 3rd hand account of one more.

For a handful of Weems collectors, the 33mm Weems made for the American market "LXN"
is a bit of a grail watch. The more well known midsize Weems is the 34mm British
RAF 6B/159 VIIA watch. There are many of the RAF Weems, but the American versions
are earlier only made in 1937.

These are American market midsize Weems. I have no idea how many were made.
The center and right are both no lock Weems. It took some effort to find proof these
existed when P.V.H. Weems ordered them in 1937. We found in one of his books he
published pictures of a early example Longines-Wittnauer Co. The serial numbers for
4 different configurations are all within a few hundred serial numbers. So there was
a rapid development of these as several different bezel locking mechanisms were
tested. You could speculate that these were the prototypes for the RAF version.

The center watch is the most interesting since it is both a no lock bezel type and has
a gilt print US Naval Academy at Annapolis logo that was printed by Longines. I have
only seen one other of this dial. They are hard to track down.

@Jones in LA Ah, head spinning is not good for making acquaintances. Some have theorized that these were the world's first bezel watches. That I believe is incorrect. Even among Longines, there were the 1931 Hour Angle watches made after 1927 solo flight so 1937 for these watches makes them come afterwards. You can see that this is even stated in one of the articles below where it says under my watches picture that Longines was the first wrist watch to have a rotating bezel. So on an on it goes making it look like I have the watch with the very first rotating bezel. Luckly, just below my watch they discuss the Lindbergh, which has the correct information in the WebChronos article.


These 33mm watches are interesting and Captain P.V.H. Weems who was the father of modern Celestial Navigation for Avigation patented the watch. They are a bit of a odd watch meant to be a more cost effective alternative to the full sized 47mm avigation watches. These are definitely the only watches that for a select few had the US Naval Academy crest. I have attempted to get a third one but these are very hard to separate from their current owners 😀 Hope you enjoy these watches, they aren't seen often.

The watches are so hard to track down, Longines requested photos for their Pioneers watch campaign which was published in a few publications. I don't believe Longines has one of their own so they borrow mine.







This watch is also very special for another reason. It was found with United States Navy Admiral Marc A. Mitscher's belongings. It is believe to have belonged to him. He of course was the Admiral that won the war in the Pacific against the Japanese Navy. He was also the Captain of the USS Hornet CV-8 that delivered the Doolittle Raiders aka Tokyo Raiders. They were the first to bomb Tokyo.










Officially from United States Navy confirmed only one Captain Marc A Mitscher existed in the Navy in 1940.

If you happen to know a little bit about Longines watches, you will know that one of the most iconic Longines watches is the C.O.S.D. military watch that was long thought of as a paratrooper watch used in Operation Market Garden by the Pegasus paratroopers. We know today that this is complete nonsense. The watch was and always has been an early British Navy clearance diver's watch.



Part of the operations of the invasion forces for Combined Operations Store Depot was to supply the Navy with weapons, ships, boats, and personal equipment of the soldiers. These watches were often called Tuna Cased COSD watches because of the shape of the locally produced cases.




This next watch is very rare. Only three known have ever been cased in solid gold Dennison cases.
It was produced in 1945 by Longines and then cased and awarded to Lawson in 1947 for his life long war efforts and commitment to the Wartime Agriculture Executive Committee = WAEC.






Matching gold midcase 3276 and caseback 53276 for gold COSD.

Here is another what I assume is a rare watch.


Most people would wonder what was going through my mind when I spent a few hundred on this
watch. It does run, but it is definitely the ugliest watch I have ever owned. It event has a hole in the
back of the case, but I've never had a William Gabus Longines before. I don't think I have ever seen
another one. It might just be that these are too much like junk that no one would bother to post one 😀

At the moment I think my rarest watch is this c-case Connie. The YG and green fumé dial combination is something I have never seen anywhere else. Very happy with this one.

My 1940’s Omega Saint Christopher.

I haven't seen another one in this exact dial configuration yet:

Longines watch made for Imperial Czar Nicholas Romanov Imperial Guards.

MG 957 'Armure' with 23.7 inside. Mine is from approx. 1929 :



Here in a 1930 catalog :

And in A. Kreuzer's book 'Omega design' :

These sort of early attempts to make waterproof watches is really interesting on how each step towards a true diving watch was built on small improvements to a older mindset and paradigm. Lovely collectable you have there in the evolution of dive watches.

I would say this Enicar Aqua Graph is the rarest seen the originality and condition. 😀

I no longer own it, but this Iraqi Air Force Breitling Navitimer ref. 1806 was somewhat uncommon...


And then there is time marvelous Omega Speedmaster Automatic ref. 376.0822 that I miss dearly. Every minute of every day.

My rarest watch is also my youngest: Nomos x Revolution Tangente Neomatik LE. Released this month and only 55 total made.



My oldest wristwatch is probably also fairly rare: 1940s Benrus Sky Chief:



I also have some old pocket watches -- this Elgin inscribed for my great grandfather perhaps the rarest: