The Second World War

The period of recovery that took place in the second half of the 1930s was stopped in its tracks by the start of the Second World War. The general mobilisation of the Swiss army deprived the workshops at Les Longines of the necessary workforce to maintain the productivity levels that had been attained by the end of the decade. In addition, as the war extended its grip, commercial difficulties emerged, although the watchmaking industry found ways of selling its products, for by contrast with the impact that the First World War had had on the course of business, the demand for timepieces continued unabated during the years of the conflict, particularly as far as chronographs were concerned. The aeroplane now took the place of the boat for the transport of watches produced in Les Longines. But in spite of this change, there were often severe obstacles in the way of traffic and finished timepieces were sometimes only delivered with difficulty.

It was during this period that the New York branch of the business showed its potential as far as the Saint-Imier company was concerned. With the closure of many European outlets, the Longines-Wittnauer company absorbed the majority of the watches produced on the banks of the Suze, even though the factory was working to its maximum capacity during this period. Indeed, in spite of the war, the financial position of the factory was very much better than it had been at any time since 1936.

While chronograph movements were the object of numerous developments in the 1930s and 1940s – the need for such instruments was great, especially during –the war – Longines was also researching the design of other technical devices. Outside the field of sports timekeeping, where the company was beginning to study and create various systems, Longines was adding to the range of instruments which it could provide to aviators. In particular, the company designed an on-board chronometer which became known as the siderograph, which gives the sidereal time at Greenwich expressed in degrees, minutes and fractions of arc minutes; this was used to speed up calculations of position by directly showing the hour angle of the vernal point in relation to Greenwich.