Longines
The history of Longines begins in 1832, when Auguste Agassiz opened a small workshop in the town of St.Imier in Switzerland. One of Auguste's sisters married a man called Marc Francillon, a shopkeeper from Lausanne, and in 1834 they had a son; Ernest Francillon.
At that time, most of the watch-making took place at the homes of the craftsmen, but in 1866 Ernest Francillon constructed a factory on a nearby-fields to St.Imier. The fields were called Es Longines. This was the first Longines production plant. The plant ensured an improved quality control, and the produced watches became soon famous for beeing both reliable and accurate.
Longines developed a long tradition with sports. The company acted as an official timekeeper for summer and winter Olympics as early as 1896. Longines started to produce chronographs already in 1879, but developed the most important timekeeping-instrument in 1912; an electronic stopwatch. Longines was also the first to develop a system that could display the time results on television in connection with sporting events. This system was first used in 1970 World Cup downhill skiing race in St.Moritz, Switzerland.
Longines also developed a strong connection with the aviation. The company produced instruments for aeroplains from the beginnings of the aviation history. In 1927, Longines timed the Charles Lindberg's first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean with the 'Spirit of St.Louis'. Longines instruments can even be found on board 'The City of New York', which broke the record of around-the-world flights in 1928.
In 1920, Longines launched the Weems Navigation Watch together with Van Horn Weems. The watch was specifically designed for pilots, and it became one of the most popular watches among pilots and navigators.
In 1960, Longines launched the world's thinnest electromagnetic watch, with the thickness of 0.98 mm. In 1969, the company developed Ultra-Quartz, the first cybernetic, electronic quartz watch in the world. In 1972, they launched a wristwatch with a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) dial. In 1979, Longines collaborated with other watch brands to develop the world's thinnest quartz watch, Feuille dOr. In 1984, the company produced the famous Conquest VHP (Very High Precision). This watch broke several timekeeping records; it lost only 12 seconds on one year.
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