The Longines Master Collection was released in 2005, and it’s generally the modern counterpart to the company’s very valuable Heritage Collection: a large number of traditionally styled replica watches with many complications. The new annual calendar is a first for replica Longines, and it’s also a very affordable foray from the company into the world of more complex calendar complications.
It’s a big surprise anyway, an annual calendar from Longines stands for a new level of technical sophistication for the brand, and it’s the most affordable annual calendar on the market by a very respectable margin with a rather cheaper price. At launch, there will be some different variations available. Three will have a stamped “barleycorn” pattern dial – one is black with Roman numerals and the other two are white, with either Arabic numerals or diamond indexes. The other fake version will be a model with a sunray blue dial. Hands are either blued steel or rhodium plated.
We were greatly impressed by the simplicity and clarity of the design. The annual calendar display is straightforward: the month, and the day of the week are shown in two windows at 3:00, with no attempt made to do anything more than provide information clearly and straightforwardly. You could if you wanted, take exception to the rather diffident legend “Annual Calendar” at the bottom of the dial, but the fake watch is such a big achievement for Longines, I really don’t have it in me to complain.  
The movement is Longines caliber L897.2, which is based on the ETA A31.L81. The L897.2 runs at a rather unusual frequency: 25,200 mph or 3.5 Hz. The annual calendar complication of course sits between a standard calendar and the perpetual calendar, and will correctly display the first of the month, after the last day of any month with either 30 or 31 days. Manual correction is necessary only once per year, at the end of February.
The annual calendar in wristwatches is a surprisingly recent development; they did not appear until Patek introduced this version, in 1996 and needless to say, that was not what you’d call a democratically priced wristwatch, and ironically, it actually had a higher parts count than Patek’s contemporary perpetual calendar movements.
With its stressing on classic design cues and proportions, together with such a cheap price, this ought to be a huge commercial hit for replica Rolex and of course, it injects an extra shot in the arm of the horological street, which has been a bit eclipsed lately by Longines’ very successful Heritage lineup.