On the strength of its long experience in timing, Longines has designed a timepiece that pays tribute to the various timing mechanisms developed during the company’s history. Named the Longines Column-Wheel Chronograph, this model houses a brand new calibre whose exclusive development by ETA was mandated and financed by Longines and other brands within the Swatch Group. This self-winding, chronograph movement has a column wheel which drives the mechanism that measures periods of time – a technical device used by the famous St. Imier brand since 1878.

Longines Column-Wheel Chronograph

Longines started manufacturing timing equipment in 1878 with the launch of a simple 20 line chronograph; reference number 20H, that had a column wheel (covered by a washer) that governed the chronograph mechanism. Following Longines’ progression into the field of timing, almost all the measuring equipment devised by the company used this same principle. Both calibres for pocket chronographs made by Longines, such as the 19CH (1889), the 19.73 (1887), the 19.73N (1909) and the 19.73N with a split-seconds function (1922), the 18.72 (1929) or the 24 line calibre intended specifically for sports timing (1939) and movements for the brand’s wrist-chronographs, such as the 13.33Z (1913), the famous 13ZN (1946) or the 30CH (1947) thus all incorporated column-wheel systems for controlling and activating the chronograph functions, which varied according to the specific calibre.

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