Formerly in the telecommunications industry, Matthias Breschan joined the Swatch Group in 1996. He didn’t know much about horology and the training totally changed his perception of the industry.
“One of the classes had us disassembling and reassembling a pocket watch and I realised that a watch has a soul. The training ingrained an appreciation and made me stay at the Swatch Group,” said Breschan, who took the helm of Longines in July 2020.
The Austrian executive was previously based in Biel and Lengnau when he managed two other brands, Hamilton and Rado, respectively for seven and nine years.
The appointment as Longines’ CEO landed him in Saint-Imier, where the company was founded in 1832.
“Longines has an impressive historical depth and a rich heritage. The amazing thing is we’re always discovering something new about the history, heritage and anecdotes of our watches,” he said.
Auguste Agassiz set up the company, and his nephew Ernest Francillon, who joined him in the 1850s, played a pivotal role in its evolution.
Francillon bought two pieces of land, known locally as Les Longines (long meadows) and the factory, built in 1867, carried the name of the site.
Since then Longines has produced timepieces and meticulously recorded each of their serial numbers. Moreover, the first registered trademark, the winged hourglass has also been in constant use since 1867.
“There are many firsts and innovations. We need to work on sharing our history so that people know more about what Longines has been doing for almost 200 years,” noted Breschan.
Its first timing instrument, a chronograph pocket watch with a monopusher crown, was developed in the late 1870s. In the following decade, its stopwatches were first used for equestrian races in the US.
Longines’ professional timekeeping for various sports events is ensured by fast-beating movements capable of measuring 1/10th or 1/100th of a second.
Milestones for high-frequency wristwatches include the Ultra-Chron launched in 1966 and a high-beat diver’s model two years later. The heritage is embodied in the latest Ultra-Chron, which is water resistant to 300m and beats at 36,000 vibrations per hour.
The development of GMT timepieces stems from the first pocket watch indicating two time zones created in 1908. The first wristwatch version — with a Z flag referring to Zero (UTC+0) or later Zulu Time — followed in 1925.
In the same year, Longines began equipping its watches with a flyback function, and the invention received a patent in 1936. An advantage of the flyback is that it gave pilots a practical and fast way of successively timing different flight stages, thus facilitating navigation.
The legacy of precision instruments continues with Avigation watches such as Longines Spirit Zulu Time and the latest Spirit Flyback. The new Longines Pilot Majetek further recalls expertise in developing watches with rotating bezels.
“Longines looks back on milestones to celebrate our heritage. Because of the long history and rich heritage, the Longines Museum in Saint-Imier is too small. So we’re building a bigger one to comprehensively tell our fascinating story,” Breschan said.
