A GOLDEN FLOCK
The collection unveiled in 2023 welcomes two new timepieces equipped with the flyback chronograph function developed by the watchmaker from Saint-Imier almost a century ago and enhanced with touches of gold.
Throughout history, man has imagined wings to navigate among birds and stars. Made of feathers, canvas or metal, he gradually refined his wings until the beginning of the 20th century, when his prolific creativity was transformed into reliable aircraft prototypes. The boom was sudden, and in 1925, to accompany the explorers of the skies, Longines developed a function associated with that of the chronograph, making it possible to measure a succession of short beats, stop a count and restart a new one with a single push: flyback, for which it filed a patent a decade later. In 2023, this mechanism was integrated into one of the Saint-Imier-based brand’s collections to become a range in its own right, Spirit Flyback, which this year welcomes two new timepieces.
Measuring 42mm in diameter and 17mm thick, the steel case common to these variants is punctuated with elements – rotating bezel, screw-down crown and control pushers – in gold, yellow to sublimate the green dial and rose to enhance the brown. The smoky hues of these faces highlight the azure finish of their counters, the small seconds at 9 o’clock and the minute totalizer powered by the central second hand. As the Spirit Flyback is a pilot’s watch, the oversized Arabic numerals are coated with Super-LumiNova®, as are the hour and minute hands. All these functions are provided by the L791.4 column-wheel caliber, a COSC-certified automatic movement that delivers 68 hours of autonomy when fully wound.
