The Longines Telemeter Chronograph

Longines continue their 180th Anniversary celebrations with a new, but retro piece, the Longines Telemeter Chronograph.

A Telemeter on a watch  measures distance based on the speed of sound, a scale which is perhaps familiar to enthusiasts of military pieces where it was once used as a crude type of range finder.  Maybe you are more familiar with the Tachymeter scale, which is used to measure speed.  Each was created to be a useful addition to a watch dial, one is often accompanied by the other.  To feature both scales on a watch dial along with chronograph counters, presents the designer with a certain conundrum – how to maintain readability of the indications with such a level of on the dial busyness.  The Longines Telemeter Chronograph accomplishes this challenge by using references to their 1930′s timers – an era when such features on a watch were not simply there to add interest, but were a widely used scales of measurement – and thus the result is a superbly elegant vintage-styled timepiece.

Housed in a fine and dapper 41mm trim-bezeled case, the Longines Telemeter Chronograph has a crisp white lacquer dial as a backdrop for its overlapping indications and curly Arabic numerals.  Both scales are marked in red, the telemeter on the tapering outer rim of the dial, the tachymeter seductively curled in the centre.  The three counters, the small seconds at 9 o’clock, the 30 minute at 3 o’clock and the 12 hour at 6 o’clock are laid on top, each with a fine railtrack edge.  Blued Breguet-esque hands complete the refinement.

Inside is the Longines L688 automatic chronograph calibre, column-wheel of course, with a power reserve of 54 hours.  The Longines Telemeter Chronograph comes presented on a hand-stitched black alligator strap.