Flagship

When we think about the best entrance into the world of vintage watch collecting, lots of watches come to mind, but quite a few look a lot like this Longines Flagship Automatic.

Today, mechanical watchmaking is largely a luxury exercise. Whether luxury because of price point or because it speaks to something out of the ordinary, that transcends bare necessity we all have our reasons for our love for the special and purpose-built.

With this mindset for collecting, it’s sometimes hard to remember that this wasn’t always the case. Prior to the advent of quartz, everyday people were all wearing mechanical watches. That’s both an exciting and a humbling realization.

This Longines Flagship Automatic is a great representation of vintage categorically. It has the versatile aesthetics of a great everyday piece, the utility of an automatic winding movement and a date window, and the nostalgia of a gorgeous Longines multi-link bracelet. But perhaps what’s coolest about this piece is that it comes from a time when everyone wore mechanical timepieces. This wasn’t a luxury product. This was a working-man’s watch who wanted quality and elegance.

This piece features a silvery dial, minimalist stick indexes, a framed date window, and beautiful straight lugs. It measures a comfortable 35mm in diameter with a signed crown, acrylic crystal, and seemingly unpolished case.

Manufactured in the 60s, this piece was intended to serve a purpose and do it with reliability and style. In the world of contemporary mass- production and mechanized manufacturing, to us here at Analog Shift, there’s something incredibly alluring about this type of watch, and perhaps that’s why this is such a great introduction to not only what makes for a great mechanical watch, but also what makes vintage the coolest segment in the watch community ...

... Sorry, someone has to say it!