Exploring other time-measurement technologies, and a commitment to the service of sport

In addition to its mechanical instruments, Longines was also studying new technologies for the measurement of time. Thus the company developed a high-precision quartz clock which enabled it to obtain an unprecedented result at the Neuchâtel Observatory in 1954. The performance of this device, designed in-house at the Saint-Imier factory, superseded the accuracy records previously established by time-measurement instruments at astronomical and chronometric observatories. After 24 hours in operation, the Longines quartz clock showed an error of zero (0 thousandths of a second). It was the chronometry department which, under the supervision of the engineers from the winged-hourglass company, had perfected the mechanical and electronic parts of the device. This quartz clock was then coupled to a Paillard-Bolex H16 camera. This technical association enabled Longines to design a sports timing device using a principle already evaluated with the previously developed Chronocaméra, i.e. the visualisation of time on the finishing line. In this device, known as the Chronocinégines, the time indicated to one hundredth of a second by the quartz clock was projected via a set of lenses on to each frame of a film (up to 100 frames per second), thanks to a synchronous motor which causes a counter movement to turn. During the 1950s, the development of sports timekeeping devices continued at Longines. Although it was just one of a series of systems designed by the Saint-Imier company, the Chronocinégines signalled the emergence of a new technology, the technology of electronics and quartz, within the field of time-measurement techniques.