In 1933, Longines made a timepiece especially for famous pilot Charles Lindbergh for a 47,000 km trip around the North Atlantic, a trip he undertook with his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh. After having been the first man to fly non-stop across the North Atlantic in his Spirit of St. Louis, Lindbergh wanted to explore possible future air routes across the far north.
For this expedition, Lindberg took a powerful aircraft with a 710 hp engine and a variable propeller. He also took two radios and an inflatable canoe in case they were forced to eject from the aircraft. During their trip, Lindbergh and his wife christened their plane the Tingmissartoq, which is an Inuit word meaning ‘the one that flies like a great bird’. Lindbergh’s navigational instruments included a directional gyroscope, an artificial horizon, an icing gauge and two aperiodic compasses, all of which were the very latest equipment at that time. Lindbergh also took with him a Longines chronograph developed specially for his flight to Greenland and the far north.
LONGINES LINDEBERGH’S ATLANTIC VOYAGE WATCH
This timepiece had a wristwatch chrono-graph movement with a 30-minute counter. It measured time to the fifth of a second and the chronograph mechanism also had a tachymeter that could measure speeds of up to 500 kph. With the flying conditions that were experienced by the Lindberghs, a reliable timepiece was one of the final safeguards as far as navigational instruments were concerned.
This year, Longines is re-issuing this exceptional timepiece, known as the Longines Lindbergh’s Atlantic Voyage Watch, as a tribute to this aviation pioneer. This 47.50 mm automatic wrist chronograph has small seconds at 9 o’clock and a 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock, just like the original model. The time and time measurements are displayed using hands of blued steel on a silvered dial with a white surround and the watch has the 500 kph tachymeter as well as a sapphire crystal covering the dial and a solid caseback that protects an exhibition back. Mounted on a genuine brown alligator strap, the new Lindbergh’s Atlantic Voyage Watch is available in steel or rose gold.
Lindbergh’s entire route went to New Found-land, Greenland, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal, the Azores, the Canary Islands and Cape Verde before returning to the USA via Gambia, Brazil and Cuba – 47,000 km in all.
And his Longines chronograph accompanied him every km of the way.
Source: Europa Star April - May 2010 Magazine Issue
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