LONGINES Legend Diver BRONZE

Longines gives one of its earliest diver’s watches a new lease of life by means of an ancient material. I might have been saying that I’m over the whole bronze thing of late – I’m pretty sure I did on more than one occasion - allow me to humbly eat my words because here’s bronze done right. The Longines Legend Diver just happens to be one of those watches that despite being an internal bezel model, naturally lends itself to bronze. In fact outside some of the smaller niche brands such as Helson, Raven and Zelos, I think only Alpina have a bronze internal bezel diver – which isn’t a true bronze anyway, as it has spray on tan. Talking of fakery, as far as the Swatch Group is concerned after Rado, Longines is only their second brand to adopt bronze. Both Tissot and Mido only offer bronze-look models. Much like any of the other reinterpreted Legend Divers that have been released over the past few years; this one is modeled on the OG Legend Diver from 1965. It has the same case design with dual cross-hatched crowns on its right lateral side; in this instance the (⌀ 42mm by ≈ 13.5mm in height) case is made from solid bronze; I am not sure which alloy Longines have used but going by the copper tones, I would expect that it is the popular CuSn8 first adopted by Panerai more than a decade ago. Diver’s features of the watch include: dual screw-down crowns and case-back, an inner rotational bezel with dive-time scale, SLN on hands and markers, a box-shaped sapphire crystal with multi-layered AR, and 300 meters of water-resistance. Bronze aside, the real showstopper for me has to be the watch’s absolutely stunning green lacquered dial with its gradient shading which fades from dark green at its center to black on the edges; which when paired with the green NATO-style strap is proving to be irresistible.

The Legend Diver Bronze’s case-back btw is made from Titanium – the reason why? 

This is because bronze tends to react negatively with the sweat from your wrist not only causing skin irritation but also a nasty green dioxide. Conversely Titanium is hypoallergenic; meaning that it won’t react with your skin.

Just like the OG model from 1965, the Legend Diver Bronze’s case-back is decorated with a 3D embossed, historic diver emblem. Powering the new Legend Diver Bronze is a 21 Jewels, Longines L888.5 automatic caliber based on an ETA A31.L11, beating at 25,200 vph and with a power-reserve of 64 hrs. The L888.5 boasts an Si (silicon) balance spring which means that the movement is unaffected by magnetic fields. I think the Swatch Group now offers Si balance springs on most of their new divers. Finally this little bronze beauty is presented with both, a 22mm, dark brown leather strap with white stitching at the lugs, or my personal favorite, a green, nylon NATO-style strap with a bronze buckle. The new Longines Legend Diver Bronze Ref. L3.774.1.50.2 has a Swiss retail price of CHF 2,800.

Thoughts? First of all thank you, Longines for not wimping out on us and producing this is in 40mm or less – 42mm is bang on! 

While Longines are a late adopter to this niche material, I don’t think there could be a better fit than the Legend Diver; it looks properly nice. What do you think?