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Longines The Lindbergh Hour Angle 47.5mm Mens Watch
Ref. L26784110
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 249 Longines watches in stock.The original Lindbergh Hour Angle watch was designed in 1931 in direct collaboration with Charles Lindbergh himself, four years after his solo transatlantic crossing. The problem it was built to solve was practical and urgent: a pilot needed to calculate longitude in flight, and that required the hour angle method — a technique that uses Greenwich Apparent Sidereal Time to fix position. The dial and bidirectional bezel work together as a functional instrument for exactly that calculation, with the inner rotating chapter ring allowing the seconds hand to be synchronised against a radio time signal before the sighting is taken. This is not decoration dressed as utility; it is a working navigational system that happens to be worn on the wrist. At 47.5mm across and 58.2mm lug to lug, it was proportioned to sit over a pilot's flight jacket sleeve, which means it will wear large by any modern standard — 126 grams on the wrist is substantial, and the 25mm lug width is wide enough that finding alternative straps takes some effort. The hunter-style caseback opens via a dedicated pusher to reveal the movement through a sapphire window, a detail that rewards the owner who looks for it. The L699 runs at 28,800 vibrations per hour on an ETA base engineered for this scale of execution, and its 46-hour reserve gives a weekend's margin without winding.
- Reference
- L26784110
- Brand
- Longines
- Collection
- Heritage Avigation
- Case size
- 47.5mm
- Case thickness
- 16.3mm
- Lug width
- 25mm
- Case material
- Stainless steel
- Case shape
- Round
- Dial
- White
- Crystal
- Sapphire
- Bezel
- Rotating
- Movement
- Automatic
- Calibre
- L699
- Functions
- Chronograph
- Water resistance
- 30m
- Bracelet / strap
- Leather strap
- Strap colour
- Brown
- Clasp
- Buckle
- Lume
- Luminous
- Retailer
- Mappin & Webb
Additional specifications
- Lug-to-lug
- 58.2mm
- Power reserve
- 46 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 7 collections
This watch appears in the Longines Heritage Avigation range (5), Back in Stock (4,361), Stainless Steel Watches (2,892), Automatic Watches (1,554), Chronograph Watches (1,144), Leather Strap Watches (959) and Watches 44mm and Over (785).
What the specifications mean
A mechanical watch for everyday wear.
Strengths
- Sapphire crystal, which resists scratching
- Luminous hands and markers for low light
- One of Longines's more premium watches
Worth knowing
- 30m means keeping it away from water
- 47.5mm is a large watch with real presence
- 16.3mm thick, so it will not disappear under a cuff
Longines The Lindbergh Hour Angle alternatives
Watches from other brands at a similar price, style and size, so you can see what else your budget can buy.
| Specification | L26784110 | 01 793 7775 8764-SET | N1200.19B01.B01.F03 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | £5,050 | £5,350 | £4,000 |
| Case size | 47.5mm | 47mm | 44mm |
| Water resistance | 30m | 100m | 100m |
| Movement | Automatic | Automatic | Automatic |
| Strap | Leather strap | Fabric strap | Fabric strap |
| Power reserve | 46 hours | 56 hours | — |
| This watch |
|
|
Your new watch
Frequently asked questions, and things you should know about this watch
Can I swim with it?
No. At 30m it will survive rain and handwashing, but not submersion of any kind.
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 46 hours fully wound — enough to survive a night off the wrist, but not a full weekend.
What size strap does it take?
25mm. 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 58.2mm, which suits wrists from roughly 18.5cm (7¼ 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.
Cheapest place to buy
Mappin & Webb is the only UK retailer we track stocking this reference, so there is nothing to compare it against today.
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