Eventually, Longines has created the Expéditions Polaires Françaises – Missions Paul-Emile Victor watch, the first replica model made by Swiss watchmaking itself. Undoubtedly, it will be also the first replica watch universally accepted in the world of luxury watches. In fact, the watch is an exact copy of the instrument that the scientists took with them on the Expéditions Polaires Françaises – Missions Paul-Emile Victor to explore Greenland and the Adélie Coast in the 1940′s.

In 1947 France instigated a series of exploratory missions to the Arctic and Antarctica under the leadership of a renowned scientist, Paul-Emile Victor. These expeditions brought together geologists, geodesists, meteorologists, physicists, biologists, geographers and glaciologists all were aiming to explore, study and understand the North and South Poles. The mass of equipment required by the first Paul-Emile Victor missions for exploring these inhospitable regions included four Longines ship’s chronometers and fifteen Longines wristwatches which were used for determining their astronomical position.

The special edition re-release replica features the engraving on the back cover, which recalls the two opposite destinations of the polar expeditions which would go down in history: the Arctic and Greenland, and the Antarctic and the Adelie Coast. The original model was a stainless steel wrist-watch with a centre seconds hand. It features a luminous coating on the indices, the numerals and the hands, as well as a shock-absorber system integrated in its Longines 12.68N caliber movement.

While preserving identities with the original in exterior design, the remake watch has been updated in some aspects to feel more modern. The improvements includes an ETA 2892-2 automatic movement and an AR coated sapphire crystal. The bezel may be too bulky for the 38.5mm case, which is surely small by today’s standards. Anyhow, it is a decent retro looking watch with some interesting heritage, that people will likely mistake for a vintage with its certain nostalgic appeal.

Sometime in 2010, ETA, the Swatch Group watch movement making unit, will stop selling watch parts to other brands which are outside of the group. It is not exactly new information. But as the time draws closer and closer, we are more and more curious about how great an influence will be resulted from the move.

ETA is the largest and most prestigious and popular watch movement maker in the world, whose movements are what many outside brands rely on to provide “Swiss Made” watches. There are many brands under Swatch group including Swatch, Breguet, Blancpain, Longines and Omega. However, there are much more brands outside of the group in sheer need of the “ETA MADE” watch movements and other crucial components. In all likelihood the fact that ETA stops deliveries to competitors is going to happen and cause a great deal of impact on the whole industry.

Regarding the decision, Swatch Group Chairman Nicolas Hayek said, “We no longer intend to produce or deliver to third-party watchmakers. Swatch Group could cope very well without selling parts to other watchmakers. It only accounts for sales of around 300 or 400 million Swiss francs, which is some 7 or 8 percent of total sales. The loss will be small compared to all the advantages we will get back.”

The move seems like going to spell death for lots of brands. And ETA has been under a new investigation by Switzerland’s Competition Commission on whether such practices of “kill” so many watch brands that serve crucial roles in Swiss national economy is illegal and monopolistic. From another point of view, the decision made by Swatch Group leads to opportunities as well as challenges. It is a good chance for those watch brands to turn into independent watchmaking companies by creating and developing their own movements. Maybe I can’t make correct understanding how difficult to create the sophisticated parts for movements with my limited knowledge. But the news can not be all bad, because there are some other independent Swiss watch makers who want to replace ETA.

Tomorrow is the beginning of the New Year. Happy New Year!

Longines released two new limited editions of Longines Heritage Retrograde in the celebration of the 120^th anniversary of the registration of its orginal logo. This logo is still valid today and has became the identification and characteristic of the products of the famous St.Imier watch manufacturer. The well-known winged hourglass and the distinguishing name Longines make up this factory mark, the oldest trademark still used in the international registers kept by the World Intellctual Property Organisation(WIPO).

In 1867 the Longines factory was founded by Ernest Francillon and named Longines, the local name of the site of this new factory. The original group was constituted by the outworkers with new manufacturing technology in Ernest Francillon trading office. Ernest Francillon adopted the winged hourglass to represent his factory as a symbol, which has been continually used by Longines for the intervening 120 years.

The distinguishing logo, the winged hourglass,was to serve to identify the Longines’ s products, while it quickly made fakers hard to exist because of this unique factory mark. This logo represents not only a brand name, but also the history and development of the Longines brand which makes the company continues to use it to this day.

To celebrate the 120th birthday of this significant logo, Longines has organised a exhibition at the Cité du Temps in Geneva, showing people the creation, symbol and development of the Longines over the past 120 years. And a study about the history and the challenges of creating the Longines brand related to the registration of the original logo was released by Longines. As the main attraction of the celebration, Longines has created two new limited editions of the Longines Heritage Retrograde, each of which is limited to 120 pieces standing for the 120th birthday of the legendary logo.