180 YEARS OF

180
YEARS
It all began with a small “comptoir d’établissage” in Switzerland’s
Saint-Imier region. From these simple beginnings came an
advanced watch manufacturing center which grew into a successful
watch brand with a global presence. e HISTORY OF LONGINES
is lled with innovation, optimism and the entrepreneurial spirit.
BY MARIA-BETTINA EICH
The
year 1832 marked the beginning of the history of
Longines. At the time, watch production in Switzerland
looked radically dierent from the modern methods
employed today. ere were no factories where workers
and crasmen arrived in the morning and le each
evening. Instead, watch manufacturing took place inside
workers’ homes in the form of contract work for “comptoirs”
– small businesses that organized and nanced the
production of watches and sold the nished product.
Comptoirs purchased watch components from suppliers
and then had the parts delivered to the homes of several
independent workers who usually specialized in a single
aspect of watch production. In many cases the workers
were farmers who used this as an opportunity to earn
additional income, especially during the winter months.
anks to this tradition, watchmaking
remains strongly rooted in the
region between Geneva and the Jura,
and most deeply in the lives of the
people living there.
Once a comptoir received the nished
watch and the workers had
been paid, it was time to focus on selling
the watch. Here was the opportunity
to establish a name and a reputation.
Watches would be engraved
with the name of the comptoir as a
guarantee of reliability. Comptoir
signatures were a forerunner of today’s
brand names and logos.
LONGINES SPECIAL WatchTime | 61