These incredible 48mm oversized pieces used the robust pocket watch calibre, 19.73N. In October 1911, archives confirm delivery of the very first wrist chronographs of any maker to Schwob, the agent for Russia. The burgeoning needs of the military and aviation, likely gave rise to the need for a wristwatch in both of these applications. At this stage, Russia’s Air Force was the largest in the world with 263 planes almost 100 planes larger than their nearest rival, the French.
Early Russian Imperial Air Service picture of 1912. All of aviation’s greatest feats and records were recorded with a Longines. Their chronometers timed pole and other expeditions, and found fame as specialist instruments aboard ships, bathyscaphes and planes. The accuracy, reliability and prowess of the Longines name was second to none – winning more timing and accuracy awards than any other maker. It ended October 27, with the very first ever race over a built up area – around the Statue of Liberty, controversially won by the Frenchman, Henri Moisant. Twenty-seven international pilots enthralled paying crowds who watched as speed, altitude and distance records were broken.
The winner, the plane – after a nine-day aviation meet at Belmont Park, Long Island. Wellman’s dirigible America required a dramatic sea rescue after an unsuccessful Atlantic attempt, whilst Hawley and Post set a distance record in the Bennett International Balloon Cup, only to be lost in the wilds of Alaska. Likely the very last Longines delivery before five painful years of revolution with a wholesale loss of life. This was just weeks before Russian revolution and the removal of Tsar Nicholas II. Archives note the watch was one of the very first made in 1912, and delivered as a wrist chronograph watch in Feb 1917. The magnificent engraved Longines Grand Prix medals on the dust cover back of a 14k 19.73N wrist Chronograph delivered to Russia in 1917.
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