EVENT: Longines celebrate their 185th anniversary deep in the heart of their biggest market
On Thursday night, Longines celebrated their 185th anniversary in Beijing, China, with a party in the Forbidden City that wrought the brand’s legacy deeply with the history of the Chinese people, taking guests into extraordinary places and spaces. The Forbidden City dates back to the 15th century when it was built as the palace of the Ming emperors of China. It has been a museum since the 1920s and, from now until Sunday, it also plays host to Longines’ 185-year-old history, with an exhibition displaying extremely rare and epochal watches and items that usually reside in the brand’s museum in Saint-Imier, Switzerland. And, rather than being a hugely impressive party trick – to stage an event in such a sacred location – it was, in fact, quite appropriate. It’s a context, and an association, that accurately reflects the 150-year-old connection between the country and the Swiss brand. The first Longines watch arrived in China in 1867. Regular distribution followed shortly after. Now, China is Longines’ biggest market, with the brand enjoying the number one position in the country for its price point and occupying a very large and special part of the President Walter von Känel’s heart. Mr von Känel,…
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There are certain times in life when one must simply dress up and don a suit and tie. Occasions when that sporty chrono or chunky diver just won’t quite look the part. Hopefully it’s for a fancy shindig like a wedding or an awards night, and not for something less fun, like a court hearing. But, if your wristwear hasn’t already been chosen by the boys and girls in blue, you’ll want to dress it up a notch. To do that in style you’re going to need something a little more elegant strapped to your wrist. Here’s our pick of 10 of the best dress watches of 2017. Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Duoface No list of dress watches would be complete without a Reverso. The stunning pink gold Tribute Duoface not only offers two separate time zones but also two separate dials with differing colours and textures to perfectly match your debonair threads. $27,500 AUD Seiko Presage Cocktail Time First released in 2010, this new Cocktail Time added a twist to the classic dress watch style, and captured well-dressed hearts the world over. This year it’s been re-released into Seiko’s Presage collection with a selection of top-shelf colourways added. Anyway, enough words, just look…
If you’re a regular reader of Time+Tide it should come as no surprise to learn that I’m a fan of Seiko. Honestly, I think anyone with a more than passing interest in wrist-based timekeeping should be, as there are few brands that offer the sort of vertical integration that the Japanese manufacturer is capable of. If I had to narrow my appreciation for the brand down to two things, I’d have to say it’s their ongoing quest for perpetual accuracy (as evidenced in their innovations in quartz, Spring Drive and Astron technologies), as well as their unique approach to design. Both these traits are very much in evidence on the Premier Kinetic Perpetual, both the steel (SNP139P) and the limited edition Novak Djokovic (SNP146P). As you might have surmised from the headline and the dial layout, this Seiko is a perpetual calendar. And while it’s not an incredibly complex (and expensive) mechanical number, it’s also not a straight-up quartz. Rather, it’s a hybrid of the two – a kinetic – meaning there’s a winding rotor behind the solid caseback that provides power to the quartz movement, which is just jam-packed full of calendar complication: big date, month, leap year and…