The Longines story starts back in 1832 when Auguste Agassiz opened a small 'comptoir' (workshop) in St. Imier. One of Auguste's sisters married Marc Francillon, a shopkeeper from Lausanne and in 1834 they had a son, Ernest Francillon. At that time watch-making in the area used the skills of people working away from the 'comptoir', often at home. In 1866, Ernest Francillon constructed a factory on fields at "Es Longines", near to St. Imier, and brought all of the watch-making skills under one roof - this was the first "Longines factory". In 1880 on the 19th July Ernest Francillon registered the Longines brand and its winged hourglass symbol. Anyone concerned with the history of Longines of Saint-Imier is bound to plunge into the most thrilling adventures, which have become the stuff of legend of modern times. In 1932 Amelia Earhart became the first woman aviator to fly from Newfoundland to Ireland. Longines developed aviators’ watches and cockpit instruments. Longines led the field as time-keepers to the world of sports, developing precision stop watches for athletes. Longines was the official timekeeper at the 1952 Winter Olympic Games and 27 more thereafter ensuring that athletes’ performances were accurately recorded. In 2004 Longines launched the Olympic collection as a tribute to the games for which it will always be associated. It is not merely its top-quality range that this watch-making firm owes its greatness and importance. By the time Longines was celebrating the 169th anniversary they had produced 30 Million watches. For all these reasons, therefore, Longines is a virtually inexhaustible mine of reasonably priced collectors’ items, ranging from pocket chronometers to classic wrist-watches and milestones of quartz technology. The LungoMare, Master Collection, Evidenza, Dolcevita, BelleArti and timeless la grande classigue ranges continue in the tradition of this fabulous brand.