Since Longines is part of the same group (Swatch) as ETA, they are able to get several exclusivity for their brand. So not in-house, but exclusive movements made for Longines. This watch was introduced in a couple of variants (normal lugs, wire lugs, different dials, gold and steel) in 2012 with one limited edition, the rose gold version to commemorate the 180th anniversary of Longines in 2012. Limited to 180 pieces only, of course. Our friends from Hodinkee did a nice write-up on it here. It is actually, the main attraction of the Longines Column-Wheel Single Push-Piece Chronograph.

On the right of the case, you will see merely a crown. This is a mono-pusher piece, so there is merely one small button to use to activate and stop the chronograph mechanism. When you push the button to start, stop or reset the chronograph, all action can be witness on both sides of the best swiss replica watches. The fact that Longines decided in 1984 to stop producing their own movements and use ETA instead, does not mean they don’t have interesting watches for ‘techies’. As long as CEO Walter von K?nel is on board, this is not going to change (as he told us here), he is focusing on affordable main stream watches for a large audience. The stunning blued hands and stunning printing on the dial is just that in my opinion. This Longines Column-Wheel Single Push-Piece reference L2.776.4.21.3 isn’t new to the collection, but after seeing it a couple of times in the flesh I decided to request one for a review. So without further ado, let’s get started. The polished case and white lacquered dial make it look like a pocket watch with two soldered wire lugs attached to the case, which was possibly how it was meant to look.
The Longines Column-Wheel Single Push-Piece Chronograph I have in front of me, is perhaps the most feminine looking one, but I guess that it wasn’t particularly developed as a woman’s watch (although women can certainly get away with it). Who is this watch for? Well, my guess is that purists will leave this watch for what it is and look for something vintage. The Roman XII is printed in bright red. Everything is to be observed via the sapphire crystal with several layers of AR coating.

Let’s start with a bit of annoyance first. The date window. Come on, who came up with this? It ruins the Roman VI and “breaks” the otherwise stunning clean dial way too much. The introduction of the L788 movement was already in 2012 and in the meanwhile, Longines has used it in several of their Heritage collection replica watches paypal. Nobody needs a date anyway, as you once check it on your iPhone or computer screen and you don’t forget it for the rest of the day. Those watches come at a difference price as well. I’ve found a gold mono-pusher chronograph on Chrono24 that has a very different price tag (gold, true). There is no use for a date, but I think Longines also wants to keep the practical buyer’s on-board with a date window, like they did with the Longines Legend Diver Date. Once you’ve read all that information, take a look at the movement. The column-wheel is blued and the rest of the movement has a nice optical finish. In this case though, I feel that keeping a date is even worse as the dial is a huge part of the attraction of this watch where the Legend Diver can be seen more or less as a ‘tool watch’ or divers watch.

The dial giving you all the necessary information on the elapsed time, the movement showing you several micro-engineering coming to life. This ETA exclusive for Longines has a power reserve of 54 hours and ticks at 28,800 vph. There are a lot of vintage Longines chronographs on the market and they are – as written above – quite sought after.