Longines has once again turned to its archives to recreate a watch design for its emerging vintage-looking Heritage collection. The Longines Heritage Military Marine Nationale is based on an exclusive French Navy timepiece that draws on the warm colors and calm aesthetic of the Longines 5574, which served naval crews on shallow-sea diving missions in the late 1940s. Previously, the Heritage collection also featured a series of reissued aviation and military reference models, including the 90th anniversary of the Lindbergh Hour Corner for American pilot Charles Lindbergh, and the Longines Twenty-Four Hour for Swiss airline pilots in the 1950s.
The newest timepiece has a case diameter of 38.5 mm, increased from that of its predecessor, whose case measured 33.5 mm in diameter. The new model’s caseback, like its 1947 predecessor, references the Marine Nationale, or French Navy: the original used a simple “MN” inscription for “Marine Nationale,” whereas the new timepiece spells out the whole name, along with the replica watch’s reference number, water resistance, and other stats.
The golden opaline dial, like its predecessor, bears the words “LONGINES FAB SUISSE,” the latter an abbreviation of Fabrique Suisse, in black-colored lettering, underneath the painted Arabic hour numeral at 12 o’clock. The hour and minute hands are slightly bigger and more extensive than their predecessors and replace the vintage fake watch’s black hands with a baton shape made of blue steel. A domed sapphire crystal sits above the dial, protecting the surface, while the hour marker numerals and hands are coated in brown Super-LumiNova.
The original version, released in 1947, was equipped with Longines’ historic hand-wound caliber Caliber 12.68N. The new model houses the automatic caliber L888.5, based on the ETA A31. The COSC-certified movement features an anti-magnetic silicon balance spring running on 21 jewels and offers a considerable power reserve of up to 64 hours while beating at a frequency of 25,200 mph. The hour and minute hands are slightly larger than their predecessors, with a wider selection of baton-shaped blued steel hour and minute hands.
