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watch details
1957 Longines Flagship Manual Winding 30L Steel Sub Dial
Estimated price for orientation: 1 790 $
Category: 1
Class:
Description Marca: Longines Funzioni: Resistente all'acqua Sesso: Unisex Cinturino: Pelle Modello: Flagship Manual Winding 30L Chronometer Steel Sub Cassa: Acciaio Alimentazione: Carica manuale Anno di Produzione: 1957
Description: 1957 Longines Flagship Manual Winding 30L Steel Sub Dial Very attractive vintage Longines Flagship. This watch screams quality. LONGINES
„Flagship“ Swiss Made Year built: 1957 Ref. number 101, and part of the “Flagship” collection Mechanical movement, Longines manufacture caliber 30L
Handwindinmg / manual winding Power Reserve 43 hours 17 Jewels Runs at 18000 half beats per hour (slower beat version)
Small second at 6 / sub dial with second
Silvered dial
Applied baton index Dauphine style hands Stainless Steel case and back (Acier Inoxydable) Beautiful embossed back (ship) / ship engraving on the back This is the deluxe version, with a more complex case style This housing was one of the very first of its type to be produced Crystal glass: very slight dome profile (bombee)
Diameter 35 mm High 10,5 mm Water resistance: 30m/99ft/3atm. Leatherband Stunning original condition / in excellent condition Precise and accurate Delivered from the Longines Factory to the Longines official agent for Italy, Messrs Ostersetzer in Milan: the watch was sold to a client in Triest, Italy, from whom it had been purchased by an antique dealer, who sold it to the seller of this eBay listing. However, this watch comes without papers and without box. This is a exceptional piece that can be bought as a long term investment. This watch should be serviced every three or four years. This is one of the best looking watches I own and one of the best Longines have ever produced. There are many many Longines Flagships 30L that come up on eBay. One's with original dials in good condition are rare though. Pristine dial and has the ship engraving on the back. Small dial for the second. Golden indicators and golden hands for the minute, hour and second. Chronometer certified movement but without any markings stamped on the movement or dial. As it is, the watch is entirely original and in superb, untouched condition, which is fine from an investment perspective. Nobody has fooled around with this dial or tried to clean or refinish it, and as a result, it has a great deal of old world character. "Longines” is signed above the dial centre point, with “Flagship” just above the subsidiary seconds hand. This is the very early Flagship script lettering, which, of course, is absolutely correct for a first generation dial from 1957. There are no tool marks at all and it is clear that this housing has only ever been removed by conscientious repairers who owned the correct equipment to access the movement for servicing without leaving a trace of their presence. Internally, the case back is covered with an engine turned pearled pattern. Even Rolex and Omega sometimes cut corners and left their case back interiors plainly finished, but Longines took considerable trouble to ornately decorate this aspect of its watches, which says an awful lot about the company’s approach in general. We have said for years that the best vintage Longines watches were built to a superior standard to those by the other top tier Swiss brands and when we examine an item like this one, we feel we can justify this statement. “Longines” is stamped inside the case back, together with the famous winged hourglass emblem. Also here is the wording “Fab Suisse, Swiss Made, Acier Inoxydable ( the French term for stainless steel) and the model reference number. The Longines Flagship is one of those enduring model groups, like the Rolex Oyster and the Omega Seamaster, that qualifies as an icon in the eyes of the vintage watch collecting community. First offered in 1957 and still in production today, the Flagship range has continuously evolved but, exactly like the Oyster and the Seamaster, maintained the spirit that drove the creation of its original incarnation. It was always a substantial, solid watch that combined elegance with very robust build. In many ways, these three model types were all competing for market share, catering for wealthy, active buyers who wanted rugged timepieces that were also craftsman finished to an impeccable standard and expensive status symbols. The 1950s are often regarded by collectors as having been the ultimate high point in the development of the mechanical watch, when standards of engineering and finish were achieved that have not been equalled since. A lot of the technical advances that first appeared on civilian luxury watches in the 1950s were trialled by the military on both the Allied and German sides in World War II, and even by the late 1950s, when the first Longines Flagship was launched, they still captured the imagination of the buying public. If we look at watch advertising from this era, firms like Rolex, Omega and Longines would make great play of features like shock resistance and anti-magnetic shielding, knowing that they could sway a vacillating buyer towards their brand. Having these attributes so prominently displayed on a case back outer is another manifestation of this same marketing approach of, if you like, boasting about technical sophistication. As it should be, the movement in this watch is Longines calibre 30L, a hand wound unit that is among the most revered that this famous brand has ever built. Launched in 1955, two years before the Flagship made its debut, this unit employed the same architecture as many of the vintage Longines wristwatch movements of the 1930s, most noticeably with an exposed winding mechanism, but was aesthetically entirely new and shares very little in appearance with its forebears. Many Longines purists will argue, quite convincingly, that the 30L was the finest manually wound mechanism of its era, by any maker. We wouldn’t go so far, but we would agree that there was nothing better than the 30L in the post-war period and that it deserves its place as an all time classic, along with the Rolex Hunter, Omega 30mm series and IWC calibre 88 and 89 movements. All of these units were at the absolute cutting edge of technical development and craftsmanship in the mid-1950s, and choosing the superior movement out of the five is impossible and in the end, typically comes down to an individual’s passion for a certain brand. There were several versions of the 30L and it is important to be sure that the one present is the correct edition for the case into which it is fitted. The earliest type, which is the one here, ran at 18000 half beats per hour and was offered with subsidiary seconds, as here, and with centre seconds under the related calibre number 30LS. In 1958, the running speed of the 30L was upped to 21600 half beats per hour and we have encountered several very early Flagships in recent years that have been retro-fitted, incorrectly, with the more common, rapidly beating later movement. The two mechanisms are interchangeable without modifications being required and it is vital to value that the correct earlier, slower beat, version is the one present in a first generation Flagship, as it is here. The two movements are very difficult to tell apart visually, and care must be taken to establish this point before a watch is acquired. Very wisely, Longines had an established policy of developing existing successful products into new calibres, rather than starting afresh whenever it required an addition to its range of movements. This made sense, and resulted in a very solid selection of highly reliable mechanisms that had evolved gradually over a long period of time, having had any teething troubles long since ironed out. The 30L had found acclaim with retailers and the specialist horological press, prompting Longines to use it as the basis for a revised version, calibre 302, in 1965. In its original form, the classic 30L is one of the most beautiful hand wound movements ever made and an essential inclusion in any serious collection. We have never owned an example of Longines calibre 30L that was as close to being mint as the one inside this watch. This movement is indistinguishable from its equivalent in a brand new model and we could forgive the casual examiner with no specialist knowledge of Longines movements if he thought that it had been manufactured a month ago. We can state categorically that there is no better example of a vintage Longines 30L in existence anywhere, including the one on permanent public display in the company’s factory museum in St. Imier. Everything about the 30L screams quality. Longines own factory journal of 13 July 1957 ( issue 171), comments that the “Longines Flagship, fitted with the 30L movement, has become the leading model for precision and accuracy” and goes on to add that its sophistication was the result of “meticulous planning and immense care in construction”. Studying this unit with an eyeglass, we really don’t need to take Longines’ word for its superlative standard and there are numerous points worthy of mention that establish it firmly in the top echelon. If you look closely at the photos with this description, the brass sleeves around the jewels can just be made out, these contrasting with the silver finished rhodium plates. On almost all wristwatch movements, including virtually everything ever made by Rolex and Omega, the jewels have been fitted directly into holes drilled in the plates and are held there by friction. This is a perfectly good way of doing things, but a quantum step up in refinement, and cost of manufacture, is to have each jewel cased in a threaded tube known as a chaton, which is screwed down into a correspondingly threaded hole in the plate. When a repair is needed, these precision machined chatons can be wound out as required. Very, very few movement makers used screwed chatons, Longines and Patek-Philippe being among the notables that did. When these are found today, we can be assured that a movement is of Rolls-Royce quality. Again, most movements of the period, even by the top level brands, had edges to their plates that were left at right angles. Longines, wanting to demonstrate complete mastery of its art, bevelled every edge, by hand, and polished it to a mirror finish. Today, it would be impossible to produce a movement of anything remotely like this quality for even several times the asking price of this watch. Very few items in the collectible timepiece world can honestly be described as bargains, but early post-war vintage Longines watches unquestionably fall into this bracket at the time of writing. "Longines, 17 Jewels, Swiss, 30L” is signed on the bridge, together with the movement number. This watch works perfectly. It is in the best mechanical condition imaginable and if looked after properly, which means having it serviced every three or four years without fail, it will last several lifetimes with ease. Longines has a policy of taking a very active interest in its vintage watches and has a dedicated service centre at St. Imier that looks after its past classics. Having mentioned this, it should also be said that there is nothing about this piece that could not be maintained just as well by an experienced independent watchmaker, at a significantly lower price level. We have fitted this watch with a high quality leather strap. While this is not a genuine Longines strap, it is very similar in both appearance and construction to those shown on the vintage Longines watches for sale in period advertising from the late 1950s. Pricing this watch is not easy, primarily because we have never seen another 1957 Longines Flagship with this wonderful bombee case style and two piece dial. This is a very rare and extremely beautiful piece that will set the pulse of any serious vintage Longines collector racing. To find a first year of production example of an important model range, but in a form that departs from the norm, is something of an event and we would expect this item to sell quickly. Our asking price for it is 1300 Euros, which, given the quality of both its case and movement, is very modest indeed.
Description
| Marca: | Longines | Funzioni: | Resistente all'acqua |
| Sesso: | Unisex | Cinturino: | Pelle |
| Modello: | Flagship Manual Winding 30L Chronometer Steel Sub | Cassa: | Acciaio |
| Alimentazione: | Carica manuale | Anno di Produzione: | 1957 |
Description: 1957 Longines Flagship Manual Winding 30L Steel Sub Dial Very attractive vintage Longines Flagship. This watch screams quality. LONGINES
„Flagship“ Swiss Made Year built: 1957 Ref. number 101, and part of the “Flagship” collection Mechanical movement, Longines manufacture caliber 30L
Handwindinmg / manual winding Power Reserve 43 hours 17 Jewels Runs at 18000 half beats per hour (slower beat version)
Small second at 6 / sub dial with second
Silvered dial
Applied baton index Dauphine style hands Stainless Steel case and back (Acier Inoxydable) Beautiful embossed back (ship) / ship engraving on the back This is the deluxe version, with a more complex case style This housing was one of the very first of its type to be produced Crystal glass: very slight dome profile (bombee)
Diameter 35 mm High 10,5 mm Water resistance: 30m/99ft/3atm. Leatherband Stunning original condition / in excellent condition Precise and accurate Delivered from the Longines Factory to the Longines official agent for Italy, Messrs Ostersetzer in Milan: the watch was sold to a client in Triest, Italy, from whom it had been purchased by an antique dealer, who sold it to the seller of this eBay listing. However, this watch comes without papers and without box. This is a exceptional piece that can be bought as a long term investment. This watch should be serviced every three or four years. This is one of the best looking watches I own and one of the best Longines have ever produced. There are many many Longines Flagships 30L that come up on eBay. One's with original dials in good condition are rare though. Pristine dial and has the ship engraving on the back. Small dial for the second. Golden indicators and golden hands for the minute, hour and second. Chronometer certified movement but without any markings stamped on the movement or dial. As it is, the watch is entirely original and in superb, untouched condition, which is fine from an investment perspective. Nobody has fooled around with this dial or tried to clean or refinish it, and as a result, it has a great deal of old world character. "Longines” is signed above the dial centre point, with “Flagship” just above the subsidiary seconds hand. This is the very early Flagship script lettering, which, of course, is absolutely correct for a first generation dial from 1957. There are no tool marks at all and it is clear that this housing has only ever been removed by conscientious repairers who owned the correct equipment to access the movement for servicing without leaving a trace of their presence. Internally, the case back is covered with an engine turned pearled pattern. Even Rolex and Omega sometimes cut corners and left their case back interiors plainly finished, but Longines took considerable trouble to ornately decorate this aspect of its watches, which says an awful lot about the company’s approach in general. We have said for years that the best vintage Longines watches were built to a superior standard to those by the other top tier Swiss brands and when we examine an item like this one, we feel we can justify this statement. “Longines” is stamped inside the case back, together with the famous winged hourglass emblem. Also here is the wording “Fab Suisse, Swiss Made, Acier Inoxydable ( the French term for stainless steel) and the model reference number. The Longines Flagship is one of those enduring model groups, like the Rolex Oyster and the Omega Seamaster, that qualifies as an icon in the eyes of the vintage watch collecting community. First offered in 1957 and still in production today, the Flagship range has continuously evolved but, exactly like the Oyster and the Seamaster, maintained the spirit that drove the creation of its original incarnation. It was always a substantial, solid watch that combined elegance with very robust build. In many ways, these three model types were all competing for market share, catering for wealthy, active buyers who wanted rugged timepieces that were also craftsman finished to an impeccable standard and expensive status symbols. The 1950s are often regarded by collectors as having been the ultimate high point in the development of the mechanical watch, when standards of engineering and finish were achieved that have not been equalled since. A lot of the technical advances that first appeared on civilian luxury watches in the 1950s were trialled by the military on both the Allied and German sides in World War II, and even by the late 1950s, when the first Longines Flagship was launched, they still captured the imagination of the buying public. If we look at watch advertising from this era, firms like Rolex, Omega and Longines would make great play of features like shock resistance and anti-magnetic shielding, knowing that they could sway a vacillating buyer towards their brand. Having these attributes so prominently displayed on a case back outer is another manifestation of this same marketing approach of, if you like, boasting about technical sophistication. As it should be, the movement in this watch is Longines calibre 30L, a hand wound unit that is among the most revered that this famous brand has ever built. Launched in 1955, two years before the Flagship made its debut, this unit employed the same architecture as many of the vintage Longines wristwatch movements of the 1930s, most noticeably with an exposed winding mechanism, but was aesthetically entirely new and shares very little in appearance with its forebears. Many Longines purists will argue, quite convincingly, that the 30L was the finest manually wound mechanism of its era, by any maker. We wouldn’t go so far, but we would agree that there was nothing better than the 30L in the post-war period and that it deserves its place as an all time classic, along with the Rolex Hunter, Omega 30mm series and IWC calibre 88 and 89 movements. All of these units were at the absolute cutting edge of technical development and craftsmanship in the mid-1950s, and choosing the superior movement out of the five is impossible and in the end, typically comes down to an individual’s passion for a certain brand. There were several versions of the 30L and it is important to be sure that the one present is the correct edition for the case into which it is fitted. The earliest type, which is the one here, ran at 18000 half beats per hour and was offered with subsidiary seconds, as here, and with centre seconds under the related calibre number 30LS. In 1958, the running speed of the 30L was upped to 21600 half beats per hour and we have encountered several very early Flagships in recent years that have been retro-fitted, incorrectly, with the more common, rapidly beating later movement. The two mechanisms are interchangeable without modifications being required and it is vital to value that the correct earlier, slower beat, version is the one present in a first generation Flagship, as it is here. The two movements are very difficult to tell apart visually, and care must be taken to establish this point before a watch is acquired. Very wisely, Longines had an established policy of developing existing successful products into new calibres, rather than starting afresh whenever it required an addition to its range of movements. This made sense, and resulted in a very solid selection of highly reliable mechanisms that had evolved gradually over a long period of time, having had any teething troubles long since ironed out. The 30L had found acclaim with retailers and the specialist horological press, prompting Longines to use it as the basis for a revised version, calibre 302, in 1965. In its original form, the classic 30L is one of the most beautiful hand wound movements ever made and an essential inclusion in any serious collection. We have never owned an example of Longines calibre 30L that was as close to being mint as the one inside this watch. This movement is indistinguishable from its equivalent in a brand new model and we could forgive the casual examiner with no specialist knowledge of Longines movements if he thought that it had been manufactured a month ago. We can state categorically that there is no better example of a vintage Longines 30L in existence anywhere, including the one on permanent public display in the company’s factory museum in St. Imier. Everything about the 30L screams quality. Longines own factory journal of 13 July 1957 ( issue 171), comments that the “Longines Flagship, fitted with the 30L movement, has become the leading model for precision and accuracy” and goes on to add that its sophistication was the result of “meticulous planning and immense care in construction”. Studying this unit with an eyeglass, we really don’t need to take Longines’ word for its superlative standard and there are numerous points worthy of mention that establish it firmly in the top echelon. If you look closely at the photos with this description, the brass sleeves around the jewels can just be made out, these contrasting with the silver finished rhodium plates. On almost all wristwatch movements, including virtually everything ever made by Rolex and Omega, the jewels have been fitted directly into holes drilled in the plates and are held there by friction. This is a perfectly good way of doing things, but a quantum step up in refinement, and cost of manufacture, is to have each jewel cased in a threaded tube known as a chaton, which is screwed down into a correspondingly threaded hole in the plate. When a repair is needed, these precision machined chatons can be wound out as required. Very, very few movement makers used screwed chatons, Longines and Patek-Philippe being among the notables that did. When these are found today, we can be assured that a movement is of Rolls-Royce quality. Again, most movements of the period, even by the top level brands, had edges to their plates that were left at right angles. Longines, wanting to demonstrate complete mastery of its art, bevelled every edge, by hand, and polished it to a mirror finish. Today, it would be impossible to produce a movement of anything remotely like this quality for even several times the asking price of this watch. Very few items in the collectible timepiece world can honestly be described as bargains, but early post-war vintage Longines watches unquestionably fall into this bracket at the time of writing. "Longines, 17 Jewels, Swiss, 30L” is signed on the bridge, together with the movement number. This watch works perfectly. It is in the best mechanical condition imaginable and if looked after properly, which means having it serviced every three or four years without fail, it will last several lifetimes with ease. Longines has a policy of taking a very active interest in its vintage watches and has a dedicated service centre at St. Imier that looks after its past classics. Having mentioned this, it should also be said that there is nothing about this piece that could not be maintained just as well by an experienced independent watchmaker, at a significantly lower price level. We have fitted this watch with a high quality leather strap. While this is not a genuine Longines strap, it is very similar in both appearance and construction to those shown on the vintage Longines watches for sale in period advertising from the late 1950s. Pricing this watch is not easy, primarily because we have never seen another 1957 Longines Flagship with this wonderful bombee case style and two piece dial. This is a very rare and extremely beautiful piece that will set the pulse of any serious vintage Longines collector racing. To find a first year of production example of an important model range, but in a form that departs from the norm, is something of an event and we would expect this item to sell quickly. Our asking price for it is 1300 Euros, which, given the quality of both its case and movement, is very modest indeed.
„Flagship“ Swiss Made Year built: 1957 Ref. number 101, and part of the “Flagship” collection Mechanical movement, Longines manufacture caliber 30L
Handwindinmg / manual winding Power Reserve 43 hours 17 Jewels Runs at 18000 half beats per hour (slower beat version)
Small second at 6 / sub dial with second
Silvered dial
Applied baton index Dauphine style hands Stainless Steel case and back (Acier Inoxydable) Beautiful embossed back (ship) / ship engraving on the back This is the deluxe version, with a more complex case style This housing was one of the very first of its type to be produced Crystal glass: very slight dome profile (bombee)
Diameter 35 mm High 10,5 mm Water resistance: 30m/99ft/3atm. Leatherband Stunning original condition / in excellent condition Precise and accurate Delivered from the Longines Factory to the Longines official agent for Italy, Messrs Ostersetzer in Milan: the watch was sold to a client in Triest, Italy, from whom it had been purchased by an antique dealer, who sold it to the seller of this eBay listing. However, this watch comes without papers and without box. This is a exceptional piece that can be bought as a long term investment. This watch should be serviced every three or four years. This is one of the best looking watches I own and one of the best Longines have ever produced. There are many many Longines Flagships 30L that come up on eBay. One's with original dials in good condition are rare though. Pristine dial and has the ship engraving on the back. Small dial for the second. Golden indicators and golden hands for the minute, hour and second. Chronometer certified movement but without any markings stamped on the movement or dial. As it is, the watch is entirely original and in superb, untouched condition, which is fine from an investment perspective. Nobody has fooled around with this dial or tried to clean or refinish it, and as a result, it has a great deal of old world character. "Longines” is signed above the dial centre point, with “Flagship” just above the subsidiary seconds hand. This is the very early Flagship script lettering, which, of course, is absolutely correct for a first generation dial from 1957. There are no tool marks at all and it is clear that this housing has only ever been removed by conscientious repairers who owned the correct equipment to access the movement for servicing without leaving a trace of their presence. Internally, the case back is covered with an engine turned pearled pattern. Even Rolex and Omega sometimes cut corners and left their case back interiors plainly finished, but Longines took considerable trouble to ornately decorate this aspect of its watches, which says an awful lot about the company’s approach in general. We have said for years that the best vintage Longines watches were built to a superior standard to those by the other top tier Swiss brands and when we examine an item like this one, we feel we can justify this statement. “Longines” is stamped inside the case back, together with the famous winged hourglass emblem. Also here is the wording “Fab Suisse, Swiss Made, Acier Inoxydable ( the French term for stainless steel) and the model reference number. The Longines Flagship is one of those enduring model groups, like the Rolex Oyster and the Omega Seamaster, that qualifies as an icon in the eyes of the vintage watch collecting community. First offered in 1957 and still in production today, the Flagship range has continuously evolved but, exactly like the Oyster and the Seamaster, maintained the spirit that drove the creation of its original incarnation. It was always a substantial, solid watch that combined elegance with very robust build. In many ways, these three model types were all competing for market share, catering for wealthy, active buyers who wanted rugged timepieces that were also craftsman finished to an impeccable standard and expensive status symbols. The 1950s are often regarded by collectors as having been the ultimate high point in the development of the mechanical watch, when standards of engineering and finish were achieved that have not been equalled since. A lot of the technical advances that first appeared on civilian luxury watches in the 1950s were trialled by the military on both the Allied and German sides in World War II, and even by the late 1950s, when the first Longines Flagship was launched, they still captured the imagination of the buying public. If we look at watch advertising from this era, firms like Rolex, Omega and Longines would make great play of features like shock resistance and anti-magnetic shielding, knowing that they could sway a vacillating buyer towards their brand. Having these attributes so prominently displayed on a case back outer is another manifestation of this same marketing approach of, if you like, boasting about technical sophistication. As it should be, the movement in this watch is Longines calibre 30L, a hand wound unit that is among the most revered that this famous brand has ever built. Launched in 1955, two years before the Flagship made its debut, this unit employed the same architecture as many of the vintage Longines wristwatch movements of the 1930s, most noticeably with an exposed winding mechanism, but was aesthetically entirely new and shares very little in appearance with its forebears. Many Longines purists will argue, quite convincingly, that the 30L was the finest manually wound mechanism of its era, by any maker. We wouldn’t go so far, but we would agree that there was nothing better than the 30L in the post-war period and that it deserves its place as an all time classic, along with the Rolex Hunter, Omega 30mm series and IWC calibre 88 and 89 movements. All of these units were at the absolute cutting edge of technical development and craftsmanship in the mid-1950s, and choosing the superior movement out of the five is impossible and in the end, typically comes down to an individual’s passion for a certain brand. There were several versions of the 30L and it is important to be sure that the one present is the correct edition for the case into which it is fitted. The earliest type, which is the one here, ran at 18000 half beats per hour and was offered with subsidiary seconds, as here, and with centre seconds under the related calibre number 30LS. In 1958, the running speed of the 30L was upped to 21600 half beats per hour and we have encountered several very early Flagships in recent years that have been retro-fitted, incorrectly, with the more common, rapidly beating later movement. The two mechanisms are interchangeable without modifications being required and it is vital to value that the correct earlier, slower beat, version is the one present in a first generation Flagship, as it is here. The two movements are very difficult to tell apart visually, and care must be taken to establish this point before a watch is acquired. Very wisely, Longines had an established policy of developing existing successful products into new calibres, rather than starting afresh whenever it required an addition to its range of movements. This made sense, and resulted in a very solid selection of highly reliable mechanisms that had evolved gradually over a long period of time, having had any teething troubles long since ironed out. The 30L had found acclaim with retailers and the specialist horological press, prompting Longines to use it as the basis for a revised version, calibre 302, in 1965. In its original form, the classic 30L is one of the most beautiful hand wound movements ever made and an essential inclusion in any serious collection. We have never owned an example of Longines calibre 30L that was as close to being mint as the one inside this watch. This movement is indistinguishable from its equivalent in a brand new model and we could forgive the casual examiner with no specialist knowledge of Longines movements if he thought that it had been manufactured a month ago. We can state categorically that there is no better example of a vintage Longines 30L in existence anywhere, including the one on permanent public display in the company’s factory museum in St. Imier. Everything about the 30L screams quality. Longines own factory journal of 13 July 1957 ( issue 171), comments that the “Longines Flagship, fitted with the 30L movement, has become the leading model for precision and accuracy” and goes on to add that its sophistication was the result of “meticulous planning and immense care in construction”. Studying this unit with an eyeglass, we really don’t need to take Longines’ word for its superlative standard and there are numerous points worthy of mention that establish it firmly in the top echelon. If you look closely at the photos with this description, the brass sleeves around the jewels can just be made out, these contrasting with the silver finished rhodium plates. On almost all wristwatch movements, including virtually everything ever made by Rolex and Omega, the jewels have been fitted directly into holes drilled in the plates and are held there by friction. This is a perfectly good way of doing things, but a quantum step up in refinement, and cost of manufacture, is to have each jewel cased in a threaded tube known as a chaton, which is screwed down into a correspondingly threaded hole in the plate. When a repair is needed, these precision machined chatons can be wound out as required. Very, very few movement makers used screwed chatons, Longines and Patek-Philippe being among the notables that did. When these are found today, we can be assured that a movement is of Rolls-Royce quality. Again, most movements of the period, even by the top level brands, had edges to their plates that were left at right angles. Longines, wanting to demonstrate complete mastery of its art, bevelled every edge, by hand, and polished it to a mirror finish. Today, it would be impossible to produce a movement of anything remotely like this quality for even several times the asking price of this watch. Very few items in the collectible timepiece world can honestly be described as bargains, but early post-war vintage Longines watches unquestionably fall into this bracket at the time of writing. "Longines, 17 Jewels, Swiss, 30L” is signed on the bridge, together with the movement number. This watch works perfectly. It is in the best mechanical condition imaginable and if looked after properly, which means having it serviced every three or four years without fail, it will last several lifetimes with ease. Longines has a policy of taking a very active interest in its vintage watches and has a dedicated service centre at St. Imier that looks after its past classics. Having mentioned this, it should also be said that there is nothing about this piece that could not be maintained just as well by an experienced independent watchmaker, at a significantly lower price level. We have fitted this watch with a high quality leather strap. While this is not a genuine Longines strap, it is very similar in both appearance and construction to those shown on the vintage Longines watches for sale in period advertising from the late 1950s. Pricing this watch is not easy, primarily because we have never seen another 1957 Longines Flagship with this wonderful bombee case style and two piece dial. This is a very rare and extremely beautiful piece that will set the pulse of any serious vintage Longines collector racing. To find a first year of production example of an important model range, but in a form that departs from the norm, is something of an event and we would expect this item to sell quickly. Our asking price for it is 1300 Euros, which, given the quality of both its case and movement, is very modest indeed.