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Longines Conquest Heritage Year Of The Snake 40mm Limited Edition Mens Watch
Ref. L16514092
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Stepping up in Longines's range
Longines marks the 2025 Lunar New Year with a numbered edition of exactly 2,025 pieces, each carrying a caseback engraved by Chinese artist Wu Jian'an: a snake holding a Lingzhi mushroom, rendered with the kind of precision normally reserved for decorative arts. The Conquest Heritage line it draws from reaches back to mid-century Longines dress watches, and the design makes those references legible — applied baton indices, gilt hands, and a red dégradé dial that deepens toward the centre and catches directional light in a way flat colour never does. At 10.7mm thick, the case sits remarkably flat for a 40mm watch, slipping under a shirt cuff without the tell-tale ridge that defeats most dress-casual pieces. The L888.5 running inside is ETA-derived but built to a Longines brief: a silicon balance-spring that handles magnetic fields well beyond standard dress-watch expectations, and a 72-hour reserve that makes weekend removal genuinely optional rather than a risk. The caseback engraving is the detail that grows with ownership. It is not a printed transfer or a stamped motif but a commission from a named artist, and the snake-and-mushroom image carries enough symbolic weight in Chinese iconography — the Lingzhi as longevity, the snake as the year itself — that it reads as something other than a purely decorative flourish.
- Reference
- L16514092
- Brand
- Longines
- Collection
- Conquest
- Case size
- 40mm
- Case thickness
- 10.7mm
- Lug width
- 20mm
- Case material
- Stainless steel
- Case shape
- Round
- Dial
- Red
- Crystal
- Sapphire
- Movement
- Automatic
- Calibre
- ETA A31.L11
- Functions
- Date
- Water resistance
- 50m
- Bracelet / strap
- Leather strap
- Strap colour
- Black
- Clasp
- Buckle
- Lume
- Super-LumiNova
- Retailer
- Goldsmiths
Additional specifications
- Lug-to-lug
- 48.1mm
- 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.
Manufacturer’s guarantee
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.
Will the glass scratch?
Unlikely. Sapphire is second only to diamond in hardness and shrugs off everyday marking.
Does it need a battery?
No. It is automatic — the motion of your wrist winds it, and there is no cell to replace.
How 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?
20mm. 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 48.1mm, which suits wrists from roughly 16.5cm (6½ inches) upward.
Lug-to-lug decides fit more than case diameter does.
Is it a men's or women's watch?
Listed as men's, though at 40mm it sits in the range that suits anyone.
Cheapest place to buy
Goldsmiths is the only UK retailer we track stocking this reference, so there is nothing to compare it against today.
Who are Goldsmiths?
Goldsmiths has been selling watches in Britain since 1778 and is part of the Watches of Switzerland Group, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange. They are an authorised dealer, so a watch comes with the manufacturer’s own warranty.
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