Longines: Review of the Heritage 1940 and 1942

[kqxr1982]

In 2012, Longines celebrates its 180th anniversary. To commemorate this milestone, Longines will be releasing various timepieces throughout the year. Each piece will draw inspiration from a specific model in their history. Today, I will be talking about the Longines Heritage 1940 and the Longines Heritage 1942.

The Longines Heritage 1940



The 1940 comes with either a black or white lacquered dial that features an inner railway-styled minute track. Two of the most striking features of the 1940 design are its clean high bezel and slightly raised crystal. Both elements combine to give the timepiece a distinctive old world elegance.

In my experience, Longines usually offers high quality cases. In this instance, not only is the case well-finished, but careful thought has been put into its design, evident from the gently shaped contours of the 1940.

Tucked away neatly in the lower half of the dial are the seconds sub dial and the date aperture. Everything considered, this is a well put together timepiece at a very fair price (MRSP for the 1940 is $2560) and would not look out of place on any gentleman's wrist.

The Longines Heritage 1942



The styling and overall feel of the 1942 is very similar to that of the 1940 so I won't revisit those areas again. What I would really like to talk about is the L688 movement powering the 1942 that was designed exclusively for Longines by ETA.

The L688 is an automatic column-wheel chronograph beating at 28,800 vibrations per hour and providing 54 hours of power reserve. As the L688 is only 7.9mm thick and 30mm wide, it allows the 1942 case housing it to adopt a slimmer profile compared to other automatic chronographs.

Fiddling with the chronograph pushers, what immediately registered was the extremely smooth operation of the start, stop, braking, and reset functions. I'm not qualified to provide a technical explanation as to why a column wheel design is better, but by and large, a column wheel allows for a more elegant and smooth operation of the primary chronograph controls.

With the 1942 you are essentially getting an well made timepiece with an exclusive movement all for $4150 (MSRP)! Why should anyone pay a similar amount for any other chronograph that uses a movement like the Val.7750 which, despite its ruggedness, is found everywhere?



My final take on both the 1940 and 1942 is that they are both well made, thoughtfully designed and competitively priced.

[AzPaul]

Thanks for the look. Those are absolutely beautiful. Looking forward to your next piece.

[asadtiger]

very pretty and elegeant watches..thanks for sharing

[wokafu]

1940 looks absolutely fine....thank you for the nice review...

[kqxr1982]

thank you all for the kind comments!

[malarky_hk]

Nice write up. Good looking watches.