As it happened, ETA had already been playing with that idea, so they all sat down and started defining the project and deciding what other things the watch should offer as well.Īnother important feature here is the GPD system, which stands for Gear Position Detection. But since something as traditional and as Swiss as precision had been stolen away and bragged about by the smart watches (and previously by smart phones), Longines decided that they would offer the most precise non-connected watch in the world. They came to the conclusion that they had to stick to what they do best, which is making traditional watches. The Grand Seiko, Bulova, and Omega watches I cited are accurate to a very impressive ± 10 seconds per year or about half that of the Longines VHP.īut was it necessary to go that far with precision? Was it a real demand of the market? Well, the origin of the Longines Conquest VHP goes back to 2015 and the advent of the smart watch, which got Longines thinking how to face this new competition. The new L288.2 three-hands and L289.2 chronograph calibers clearly outperform certified quartz chronometers. The Grand Seiko SBGX093 Quartz, the Bulova Moon Chronograph, and even the ETA Precidrive or the Omega Spacemaster Z-33 come to mind because they are all high-precision quartz movements, but none to the degree of the new Longines VHP calibers. Let’s keep in mind that COSC requirements for quartz movements are ± 0.07 seconds per day, which translate into ± 25.55 seconds per year. High precision is, in fact, exactly what this new Longines Conquest VHP is all about: it is accurate to ± 5 seconds per year. High precision is certainly a distinctive feature that can attract those buyers ready to pay more for a better-built and better-performing watch. So, when a traditional watch company also embarks upon the production of quartz movements, it needs something that will differentiate it from the tens of thousands of cheap quartz watches flooding the market. The downside is that they are just “battery-operated” watches with little or no real distinction in the eye of the common folk and are almost taboo for some mechanical watch purists.
Quartz watches are tricky machines for watchmaking companies: they generally are easier to produce, as well as easier and cheaper to maintain – for the most part, users just need to change the battery every couple of years or so – and can offer complications at a price no mechanical watch could dream of.
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