Serving sportsmen and trailblazers

Building on its in-house expertise, Longines gradually built a special relationship with the world of sport.

Its partnership drove the company to devise a variety of inventions and developments enabling it to determine and display winning times. In 1912 at the Swiss Federal Gymnastics Meet, it introduced the “broken wire” automatic timing system. In 1952, its Photogines was the first device to visualise the finish line as it measured times. By 1960, the Contifort combined moving images and timing functions. These and other inventive developments contributed in no small measure to Longines’ sporting credentials.

Building on its historic association with sports, the company has now turned to sponsoring gymnastics and horse jumping, disciplines that express in sporting terms its own basic values of precision and elegance. Longines started its involvement in equestrian timekeeping in 1926 at the Concours Hippique International in Geneva. It has since then officiated at more than one hundred national and international show-jumping competitions in Europe and in North America, providing timing services at any number of competitions including World Championships, European Championships along with many CSIO meets as well as, more recently, Arab League competitions. Longines also took back the responsibility of official timekeeper for the FIS Alpine World Cup competitions. To mark its return to the world of ski in style, Longines has signed the Norwegian ski star Aksel Lund Svindal as its new sports Ambassador of Elegance. In 2007, the brand became official timekeeper of the renowned French Open in Roland Garros and signed tennis icon Andre Agassi as its worldwide Ambassador of Elegance. Longines also added to its extensive sports timekeeping activities Short Track Speed Skating and Archery.

That said, Longines’ sports timekeeping experience extends far beyond those disciplines with which it is currently associated. The variety of time-measurement devices and systems it has developed over the years have involved it in countless sporting events. Longines has timed a great number of prestigious competitions including thirty-one editions of the Tour de France. Its mastery of advanced technologies moved it also to approach Formula 1 racing, an experience that ultimately led to a prestigious partnership with Ferrari of Italy.

Sport competitions are by no means the only area where the company has demonstrated its timekeeping expertise. Official supplier since 1919 to the International Aeronautics Federation (FAI), Longines has provided the world of manned flight with the time-measurement instruments required to set and then certify numerous world flight records. During the 1920s and 1930s, Longines established a fruitful collaboration with Philip van Horn Weems. The US Navy captain developed the ingenious “Weems System of Navigation” in 1927. Longines time-measurement instruments contributed also to the historic, human and technical exploit of Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 first non-stop solo crossing of the North Atlantic. Instruments designed and built by Longines have thus assisted in their exploits any number of world explorers and trailblazers of the skies.