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Longines Conquest Heritage Central Power Reserve 38mm Mens Watch Blue
Ref. L16484926
Sits in Longines’s upper tier here — more premium than three quarters of the Longines watches we list, which start at £900.
Price range £900 to £22,850 across 271 Longines watches in stock.The Conquest collection turns seventy this year, and Longines has chosen to mark it not with a vague nod to heritage but with a direct recreation of one of the line's most unusual ideas. The original 1959 Conquest Central Power Reserve — reference 9028 — placed its power reserve display at the very centre of the dial using two concentric rotating discs, a mechanism that was genuinely novel then and remains rare now. This watch resurrects that exact architecture, not as a design gesture but as a functioning complication, making the remaining 72 hours of reserve immediately legible from the dial's midpoint without a subdial or a sweeping hand to disrupt the layout. At 38mm with a 45.6mm lug-to-lug span, it proportions itself much as the original did — close to the wrist, unobtrusive under a cuff, nothing about it demanding space it hasn't earned. The box-domed crystal is key to that last point: it adds visual height while keeping the 12.3mm case profile slim enough for everyday wear under tailored sleeves. The L896.5 inside runs a monocrystalline silicon balance spring, which gives it practical resistance to the magnetic fields of daily life that a conventional hairspring would not shrug off as readily. The exhibition caseback means none of that is hidden from the owner — the decorated movement is visible, and worth looking at.
- Reference
- L16484926
- Brand
- Longines
- Collection
- Conquest
- Case size
- 38mm
- Case thickness
- 12.3mm
- Lug width
- 19mm
- Case material
- Stainless steel
- Case shape
- Round
- Dial
- Blue
- Crystal
- Sapphire
- Movement
- Automatic
- Calibre
- L896.5
- Functions
- Date, Power reserve indicator
- Water resistance
- 50m
- Bracelet / strap
- Stainless steel bracelet
- Strap colour
- Silver
- Clasp
- Folding clasp
- Lume
- Super-LumiNova
- Retailer
- Mappin & Webb
Additional specifications
- Lug-to-lug
- 45.6mm
- Power reserve
- 72 hours
Learn more about Longines
Auguste Agassiz began trading watches in Saint-Imier in 1832, but the modern company dates from 1860, when his nephew Ernest Francillon built a factory in the meadows beside the Suze — the longines of the local dialect — and consolidated the scattered outworkers of the region under one roof.
Longines registered its winged hourglass in 1889. It is the oldest watch trademark still in continuous use.
The company's identity was built on precision and on timing things in public. It supplied chronographs for the first modern Olympic events it timed in 1896, timed the 1912 Federal Gymnastics Festival with a broken-wire mechanism accurate to a hundredth of a second, and developed the photo-finish camera and the quartz timing devices used across twentieth-century athletics.
Its aviation associations are equally deep. Longines instruments were carried by Charles Lindbergh across the Atlantic in 1927, and the Hour Angle watch, designed to Lindbergh's own specification to simplify longitude calculation, remains in the catalogue. Amelia Earhart and Howard Hughes both navigated by Longines.
The house was among the most decorated at nineteenth-century observatory trials, holding numerous precision records. Since joining the Swatch Group in 1983 it has occupied the accessible-heritage position: exclusive ETA-based movements, archive-driven designs through the Heritage line, and volume that makes it one of the group's most important brands.
- 1860
- Ernest Francillon builds the factory at Les Longines.
- 1889
- The winged hourglass is registered — the oldest watch trademark in use.
- 1912
- Broken-wire timing achieves hundredth-second accuracy.
- 1927
- Lindbergh crosses the Atlantic with Longines instruments.
- 1983
- Becomes part of the Swatch Group.
Also in 5 collections
This watch appears in the Longines Conquest range (60), Back in Stock (3,734), Stainless Steel Watches (2,581), Automatic Watches (1,570) and Blue Dial Watches (714).
Best of 2 retailers
What the specifications mean
A mechanical watch for everyday wear.
Strengths
- 38mm suits most wrists
- Sapphire crystal, which resists scratching
- 72-hour reserve survives a weekend off the wrist
- Luminous hands and markers for low light
- One of Longines's more premium watches
Worth knowing
- 50m suits rain and handwashing, not swimming
Longines Conquest Heritage Central Power alternatives
Watches from other brands at a similar price, style and size, so you can see what else your budget can buy.
| Specification | L16484926 | 147 | 7765-STC-20001 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | £3,900 | £3,680 | £3,550 |
| Case size | 38mm | 38.5mm | 39.5mm |
| Water resistance | 50m | 50m | 50m |
| Movement | Automatic | Automatic | Automatic |
| Strap | Stainless steel bracelet | Leather strap | Leather strap |
| Power reserve | 72 hours | 42 hours | 62 hours |
| This watch | Closely matched |
|
Your new watch
Frequently asked questions, and things you should know about this watch
Can I swim with it?
Showering yes, swimming no. 50m covers splashes and brief immersion, but a swimming stroke generates well above the pressure that figure describes.
Water resistance explainedWill the glass scratch?
Unlikely. Sapphire is second only to diamond in hardness and shrugs off everyday marking.
Sapphire, mineral and acrylic comparedDoes it need a battery?
No. It is automatic — the motion of your wrist winds it, and there is no cell to replace.
Quartz, automatic and solar comparedHow long does it run for when it's not worn?
About 72 hours fully wound — enough to sit off the wrist over a weekend and still be running.
What size strap does it take?
19mm. Any strap of that width will fit, and on most modern watches quick-release bars make the swap a two-minute job with no tools.
Will it fit my wrist?
Lug-to-lug is 45.6mm, which suits wrists from roughly 16cm (6¼ inches) upward.
Lug-to-lug decides fit more than case diameter does.
How to size a watch to your wristIs it a men's or women's watch?
Listed as men's, though at 38mm it sits in the range that suits anyone.
Cheapest place to buy
Both Mappin & Webb and Goldsmiths list it at £3,900, so choose on delivery and warranty rather than price.
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