First Look: The Updated Longines Master Collection now gets Light Blue Dials - Monochrome Watches
The brand’s one watch collection, if you will. The light blue treatment is rolled out on both the 39mm and 41mm automatic Master Collection models, featuring all of the recent updates that we have explained in this article. Released now as part of the permanent collection, the new ice blue versions of the Longines Master Collection Automatic are priced at EUR 2,500 for 39mm models and EUR 2,650 for 41mm models, regardless of the type of strap/bracelet.
The Longines Master Collection is, without a doubt, one of the brand’s most important ranges, with the mission to mix traditional mechanical watchmaking and everyday usability. The brand’s one watch collection, if you will. First presented in 2005, it has been entirely revamped earlier this year with revised cases, new dial patterns, reshaped hands and new bracelet options. Following the introduction earlier today of the top-of-the-range Master Chronograph Moonphase and the new and highly appealing Chronograph Mono-Pusher, it is now time for the classic time-and-date models to get a fresh new colour, as Longines extends its use of light blue to its flagship collection.
Usually a highly traditional and conservative brand, Longines has, in recent months, found a certain boldness by adding ice blue or light blue dials to some of its latest creations. We have seen this on the revamped HydroConquest 300m Diver, the brand’s modern dive watch, as well as on the vintage-oriented and singular Conquest Heritage Central Power Reserve. It is also one of the colours chosen for the Chronograph Mono-Pusher, just introduced today. And next to the all-time classic silver and navy-blue dials offered as part of the revamped range of models, the time-and-date Master Collection automatic watches are now getting the same fresh colourful treatment.
The light blue treatment is rolled out on both the 39mm and 41mm automatic Master Collection models, featuring all of the recent updates that we have explained in this article. And it starts with the case, with its slim profiles (9.05mm for the 39mm models, 9.50mm for the 41mm models) and elegant polished, concave-shaped bezels. Equipped with sapphire crystals on both sides, these watches have, unfortunately, a rather limited water resistance of 30m. All can be equipped with either a multi-link, brushed and polished stainless steel bracelet, or an anthracite alligator leather strap. Both options share a triple-folding safety clasp equipped with a micro-adjustment system (something rarer on leather straps).
The big deal is, as you’ve guessed from the title, the new dial colour. A fresh, light blue tone that’s quite trendy these days, but works well in the context of this elegant everyday watch: not overly present, yet discreetly distinctive and casual. Besides this new colour, these new references rely on the same updates as the rest of the collection, which includes a new stamped barleycorn pattern, reminiscent of traditional guilloché, with a grooved minute track and a new, smooth external track replacing the angled inner flange of previous models. The hands have also been updated, being a sharper take on the classic leaf-shaped hands, and the numerals have a new, rather appealing font. All elements of the dial are rhodium-plated on these light blue versions.
Regardless of the size, all models rely on the same Longines-exclusive movement, the calibre L888.5. Developed by ETA on the basis of the 2892-2, this automatic movement features an enhanced decoration, a regulator running at 3.5Hz and fitted with a silicon balance spring as well as an elongated power reserve of 72 hours.
Released now as part of the permanent collection, the new ice blue versions of the Longines Master Collection Automatic are priced at EUR 2,500 for 39mm models and EUR 2,650 for 41mm models, regardless of the type of strap/bracelet.
For more details, please visit longines.com.