Technical innovation marked the start of the decade and opened new areas to pioneering design.

In 1980 the creation of a diminutive movement, caliber L960, designed for women’s watches, gave Longines’ creative teams fresh impetus, resulting among other successes in a silver medal at the Bijhorca jewelry and watch salon in Paris. Longines’ “Clip” design also won the Montres et Bijoux de Genève prize that year.

In 1982 Longines celebrated its 150th anniversary with a collection of ultra-slim gold watches called Agassiz. Only 3 mm thin yet water-resistant. These models have remained in the Longines collection since under the name of La Grande Classique de Longines.

By 1983, steady research and development miniaturization efforts yielded caliber L961, a tiny baguette movement barely 1.75 mm thick, leading to the design of breathtakingly slim women' s watches.

Longines and Ferrari
1982 saw the birth of a new advertising campaign featuring a special collection dedicated to Longines’ partnership with the Ferrari Formula 1 Racing team. The advertisement for this collection was photographed at the fabled Paris restaurant La Grande Cascade.

The conquest of precision
In 1984, Longines launched its Conquest line fitted with the VHP (Very High Precision) movement developed by Longines. Thanks to their thermocompensating design, VHP models are 5 to 10 times more precise than a normal quartz watch.

Longines and the world of gymnastics
After having timed a great number of gymnastics events, starting with its initial efforts at the 1912 Swiss Federal Gymnastics Meet in Basel, Longines in 1989 became the official partner, timekeeper and data-handling operator of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the European Gymnastics Union (UEG). In 1997, it awarded its first Longines Prize for Elegance in gymnastics at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Berlin, Germany, to Russian gymnast Yanna Batyrchina.