The middle years of the 20th century: timekeeping and chronometry

Generally, the newfound peace seemed to benefit the Swiss watchmaking industry and to contribute to its development. However, the influx of orders in the period following the war should not obscure the position achieved by the industry in Switzerland during the conflict, while foreign competition was suffering under a variety of constraints. In the face of the expansion of the worldwide demand for watches, production equipment was deployed and factories were enlarged. At Les Longines, new buildings were constructed throughout this period as part of a huge transformation programme.

In addition to innovation in watchmaking technology, the “winged-hourglass” company continued to pursue the paths it had been successfully following for several years beforehand. In the field of precision, Longines participated in the chronometry competition set up by the Neuchâtel Observatory to evaluate wristwatches, and obtained excellent results. Abandoned during the war (by Longines in particular), these chronometry tests setting one watchmaking brand against another took on a new importance in the context of the competition between the various companies. But although the chronometry competitions were a suitable means of testifying to production quality, the necessity of having a precise instrument for measuring time remained a fundamental need in many areas.

From the 1950s onwards, sports chronometry, a field in which Longines had significant expertise even at that time, constituted an important part of the activities of the winged- hourglass brand. Thanks to chronometry instruments developed by the Saint-Imier company from 1878 onwards, Longines had participated in numerous sports events of international importance.

Productivity at the Longines factory, achieved during the first half of the 20th century at the cost of rationalisation and modification of the production method, was largely maintained at the same level in the years between 1950 and 1970. Through its chronometers, Longines participated in the travels undertaken by pioneers searching the world for as yet unexplored territory. The French polar expeditions led by the scientist and ethnologist Paul-Emile Victor between 1947 and 1976 were among these attempts at the exploration of the planet, carried out even in sometimes hostile regions. The large amounts of sophisticated equipment that these expeditions required included Longines chronometers. For a long voyage into an inhospitable environment, a reliable chronometer is a vital piece of equipment, principally for determining position. Subjected to huge variations in temperature, the equipment produced by Longines supported geologists, physicists, geophysicists, glaciologists, geodesists and other engineers of the French expedition in their polar journeys. Apart from the characteristics of the movement itself, i.e. the construction and totality of the technical parameters contributing to a precise rate, the watertightness of the timepiece was an essential prerequisite for any expedition in difficult conditions: a watertight case protects the movement and promotes a regular rate.

While Longines was participating in the discovery of the poles, or in other expeditions such as the British topographical campaign in Georgia in 1955-1956, the winged-hourglass company also found itself plunged to the depths of the ocean bed. Through its chronometry equipment, Longines was associated with the marine explorations carried out by Professor Auguste Piccard. A Swiss physicist, Piccard had devoted the first half of his career to conquering the stratosphere in a pressurised airship of his own design, with which he attained a height of 15,781 metres in 1931. After the Second World War, he resumed the position of Professor of Physics which he had held before the conflict at the University of Brussels, where he led work on the development of an engine for exploring the ocean depths. He designed his first bathyscaphe (derived from the Greek “bathus” (deep) and “skaphê” (boat)). At the beginning of the 1950s, Piccard directed the construction of a new submersible, financed by Italy and Switzerland, which he christened Trieste in honour of the Italian city where the project was based. The first tests were carried out during the summer of 1953 along the Italian coast, with the assistance of the Italian Navy. In the cabin of the Trieste, high-precision Longines counters formed part of the equipment with which the scientist and his son Jacques Piccard launched themselves to a test depth of more than 1000 metres. On September 30th 1953, the "Trieste" attained a depth of 3,050 metres off the island of Ponza. This was to be the professor’s last dive, after which he handed over the control of his bathyscaph to his son.