Tap the image to enlarge
Longines Spirit Flyback 42mm Steel Brown Leather Strap Black Sunray Dial
Ref. L38214532
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 Spirit collection reaches back to Longines' work in the 1920s and 1930s, when the brand was producing chronographs for aviators at a time when accurate elapsed-time measurement was genuinely life-critical. This flyback variant carries that lineage forward through the L791.4, a COSC-certified movement built around a column-wheel flyback mechanism and a silicon balance-spring — the latter making it resistant to the magnetic fields that would have troubled those earlier pilots and that still cause problems for conventional lever escapements in everyday use. The 68-hour power reserve means a watch left on the nightstand Friday evening is still running Monday morning. At 17mm thick, this sits tall on the wrist — the case depth is the honest price of housing a proper flyback chronograph, and it wears accordingly: substantial, deliberate, not something you forget you have on. The black ceramic bezel insert and the sunray black dial pull together cleanly, and the brown leather with its deployant clasp and micro-adjustment mechanism gives more precise daily fit than a tang buckle ever could, which matters on a watch this present on the wrist.
- Reference
- L38214532
- Brand
- Longines
- Collection
- Spirit
- Case size
- 42mm
- Case thickness
- 17mm
- Lug width
- 22mm
- Case material
- Stainless steel
- Case shape
- Round
- Dial
- Black
- Crystal
- Sapphire
- Bezel
- Bidirectional rotating
- Movement
- Automatic
- Calibre
- L791.4
- Functions
- Chronograph
- Water resistance
- 100m
- Bracelet / strap
- Leather strap
- Strap colour
- Brown
- Clasp
- Deployant clasp
- Lume
- Luminous
- Retailer
- Goldsmiths
Additional specifications
- Lug-to-lug
- 50mm
- Power reserve
- 68 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 Spirit range (34), Stainless Steel Watches (2,892), Automatic Watches (1,554), Chronograph Watches (1,144) and Leather Strap Watches (959).
Manufacturer’s guarantee
What the specifications mean
A mechanical watch for everyday wear.
Strengths
- 100m water resistance covers swimming and watersports
- Sapphire crystal, which resists scratching
- 68-hour reserve survives a weekend off the wrist
- Luminous hands and markers for low light
- One of Longines's more premium watches
Worth knowing
- 17mm thick, so it will not disappear under a cuff
- Leather does not suit regular contact with water
Longines Spirit Flyback alternatives
Watches from other brands at a similar price, style and size, so you can see what else your budget can buy.
| Specification | L38214532 | N3000.07T01.B03.R01 | 125581 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | £4,250 | £4,400 | £4,500 |
| Case size | 42mm | 42mm | 42mm |
| Water resistance | 100m | 100m | 100m |
| Movement | Automatic | Automatic | Automatic |
| Strap | Leather strap | Rubber strap | Leather strap |
| Power reserve | 68 hours | 41 hours | 48 hours |
| This watch | Closely matched | Closely matched |
Your new watch
Frequently asked questions, and things you should know about this watch
Can I swim with it?
Yes. At 100m it is rated for swimming and snorkelling, though not for diving.
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 68 hours fully wound — enough to sit off the wrist over a weekend and still be running.
What size strap does it take?
22mm. 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 50mm, which suits wrists from roughly 16.5cm (6½ 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
Goldsmiths is the only UK retailer we track stocking this reference, so there is nothing to compare it against today.
More Longines watches like the Spirit Flyback
In stock, and close on style and price
