Progress is inevitable and one way or another it will take you with it like an ocean wave. So why not embrace it?
The same thing applies to the horological parts of our lives. Overall, the progress is there (I am not referring to the classic watchmaking or to the Haute Horlogerie manual techniques): from the first quartz watch the Seiko Astron, more than 40 years ago, till the actual quartz watch is a huge technological advance that cannot be stopped.
In the light of progress, Longines released on the 9th March 2017 a new quartz watches line – the V.H.P. (Very High Precision): keeping the Longines signature of elegance, a new type of movement is refining the evolution of the quartz watches, taking it to a new level. This evolution comes naturally – in a smartwatch era, this movement is the first “classical quartz watch” that guarantees timekeeping by resynchronization of the watch hands and a perpetual date.
From the V.H.P. collection, the three hands watch versions come in two case sizes: the Ref. L3.716.4.56/ 66/ 76/ 96.6 comes in a 41mm diameter stainless steel case and the Ref. L3.726.4.56/ 66/ 76/ 96.6 comes in a 43mm case. Both case sizes come with sapphire crystal with a multi-layered anti-reflective coating.
The slender case with brush finish has an interesting crown safeguard to protect the beautiful crown from accidental hits.
The dial, which comes in black, silvered, blue or carbon has two applied Arabic numerals at 12 and 6 o’clock and applied bar indexes with Super-Luminova for the hour indexes. The hands are black – “new noir” with Super-Luminova insertion for the hours and minutes hands and with a red tip for the seconds hand. Longines made a good decision with the date window at 3 o’clock that comes in the right colour combination.
A lovely detail that reveals the sporty intention of this watch is the V.H.P. inscription in red, as well as the red minutes/seconds indexes. These indexes are continued on the inner bezel side creating a greater depth effect and at the same time, make the time-reading easier.
The three hands watch comes with the quartz caliber L288.2 developed by ETA (ETA E56.111) exclusively for Longines: an extraordinary precision of ± 5 seconds per year and a very innovative and smart correction system with GPD (gear position detection) that allows correction of the hands after a physical shock or an exposure to a strong magnetic field.
The second variation of the V.H.P. collection is the Chrono, which is based on the caliber L289.2 developed by ETA (ETA E57.211) and having the same capabilities of precision and corrections as the three hands movement.
The cases used by this watch have the same design line as the three hands version and have in addition the chrono-pushers in a very classic design. The sizes are 42mm diameter for the Ref. L3.717.4.56/ 66/ 76/ 96.6 and 44mm diameter for the Ref. L3.727.4.56/ 66/ 76/ 96.6.
This watch comes with a black, silvered, blue or carbon dial with applied Arabic numerals at 12 o’clock and applied bar indexes with Super-Luminova for the hour indexes. The sporty V.H.P. inscription in red occupies a high position underthe 12 o’clock Arabic numeral, the small seconds is placed at 6 o’clock, the 30-minutes counter at 3 o’clock, the 12-hours counter at 9 o’clock and the date window at 4 o’clock.
The movement L289.2 uses five independent two-way motors – one for every function: this leads to a precise display of the time and to good time measurement since the watch, even if it’s affected by a shock, it’s correcting the hands position. Even more, through the smart crown, the time and date correction is much easier for the user (after a battery change – for example).
But what do these modern movements actually do? The calibers have a smart brain that is used to keep the time and to detect the eventual problems like a physical hit or a disturbing magnetic field: these “events” happen every day more often than we can imagine, for example during sport activities: tennis, golf etc. When an event is detected the “brain” holds the hands and after the event the affected hands are driven to the correct position using the step-motors with GPD (gear position detection). This brain makes the perpetual calendar possible.
The watches come with a stainless steel strap with triple safety folding clasp and push-piece opening mechanismand have a recommended price of 950CHF for the three hands version and 1550CHF for the chronometer version.
The Longines V.H.P. collection is actually a smart watch collection. Even if it doesn’t count steps or show us the lost calls, this watch collection is part of the future.
Please visit the Longines Website for more information.