longines l4.705.4.58.2

Long live Longines! That's what you are bound to say; one peek at the Longines Admiral Chronograph and you are floored. The case, in stainless steel, measures 42mm and has an AR-coated sapphire crystal. It beats its competitors by being water resistant to 100 meters while some of the real cool and expensive ones can only go down to 30 meters. Movement is the automatic Longines calibre L705 (base Valgranges A07.231) with 27 jewels and a power reserve of 46 hours and that is good.

Longines Expeditions Polaires Francaises — Missions Paul-Emile Victor (Ref. L2.732.4.76.X)In 1947, the French government sent several expeditions to explore both North and South Polar regions of Earth. Somehow missing the 60th Anniversary of the events and not willing to spend three more years waiting for the 70th Anniversary to happen, the Swiss watchmaking brand has presented its new Longines Expeditions Polaires Francaises — Missions Paul-Emile Victor vintage watch just for the fun of it.Although not particularly fond with Longine’s current model line-up, I find their “vintage” offerings a quite appealing. Like the Longines Lindbergh's Atlantic Voyage automatic chronograph watch first unveiled in the beginning of the year, this new timepiece may become a great buy for just about any watch enthusiast obsessed with “classic” models.Unlike the aforementioned gargantuan Lindbergh’s Atlantic Voyage, the Longines Expeditions Polaires Francaises — Missions Paul-Emile Victor has been re-issued in a relatively small case, almost matching in size the original model. Measuring only 38.5 mm in diameter, it is also quite thin, especially by modern standards.The watch owes its slimness to the Longines caliber L619, which is based on the time-proven ETA 2892-A2 automatic movement. Being only 3.6 mm thin, the base movement is also used in “slim” models from other major brands, such as the (*sigh*) IWC Portofino, Porsche Design Flat Six P’6310, and Sotirio Bvlgari Date Retrograde, just to name a few.The ebauche is generally available to select buyers in three grades: Elaborated, Top and Chronometer and it is not quite clear, which one of the first two is used in this particular model. Anyway, all three grades are quite accurate and very reliable.I hadn’t the pleasure of seeing in real life any of the original watches issued for the Paul-Emile Victor missions and so I cannot tell you how “authentic” the new model actually is, but, judging by the pictures, the watch is very close to the “military” watches produced by Longines and other European watch makers during the 1940s.Of course, due to advances in technology, the blued steel hands look more refined and the thick layer of luminous substance (previously it was Radium, but this time they used SuperLuminova, which is a lot safer) seems to be more neatly applied to them. Also, equipped with the hand-wound Longines 12.68N caliber, the original watch lacked the small date window at 3 o’clock.The rest of the dial remains true to the original with its classic convex shape, odd numerals substituted with arrow-shaped indices, and a high-contrast minute scale printed on the outer part of the dial. Just like one might expect both Arabic numerals and indices are covered with SuperLuminova providing for superb reading in night conditions.All things considered, the success of Longines Expeditions Polaires Francaises — Missions Paul-Emile Victor depends on the official retail price. If the Swiss brand will manage to keep the MSRP lower than $1200, count me in!