Longines and equestrian sport: a course marked by precision and elegance

Longines has acquired prodigious experience in equestrian timing, starting at the Geneva International Horse Show in 1926. The Swiss watchmaker can be proud of the fact that, since then, it has participated in over one hundred national and international equestrian competitions in Europe and the United States and it has provided timekeeping services for manifold competitions such as the World Championships, the European Championships, various CSIO competitions and, more recently, some Arab League events.

The disciplines involving Longines
Show jumping: CSIO 5 stars for the highest degree of difficulty, or the art of making the horse jump over obstacles while making a minimum of errors and being the fastest to complete a given course. It is a timed sport in which the penalties awarded are counted in terms of points (marking scheme A) or time (marking scheme C).
In show jumping, the rider/horse team is judged under various conditions on an obstacle course. The event is designed to demonstrate the horse’s precision, power, dexterity, speed and his respect for the obstacle as well as the quality of the rider’s equestrian skills.
Depending on the level of the competition or the phase of the event, the course can contain a varying number of jumps to be cleared in a given time ranging from 40 to 80 seconds. The horse has to run, on average, between 325 and 400 metres per minute. The jumps can be as much as 170 cm high and 200 cm wide, with the exception of rivers, the maximum width of which is 450 cm.

Longines provides timing and data processing for the following competitions:
CSIO La Baule (France), CSIO Rome (Italy), CSIO Saint Gallen (Switzerland), CSIO + CHIO Rotterdam (The Netherlands), CSIO Hickstead (Great Britain), CSIO Dublin (Ireland) and CSIO Barcelona (Spain).

Six technicians arrive at the site three days before the first event to assemble and test the installations. They provide full service throughout the four days of competitions.

A total of 3.5 tons of equipment and 2 kilometres of cable are required in order to ensure the success of each event on these days, the average length of which can approach and sometimes even exceed 12 hours.