Two words about the Longines Ultra-Quartz: it comes with a completely hand-soldered unique movement, which is one of the most fascinating in horology. The concept was so avant-garde and technically futuristic that it was merely working with the early electronic elements available in 1969; and it was so inspiring that its concept could be named the predecessor of the nowadays most future-proof technology in watchmaking, the Seiko SpringDrive.

Indeed, a tuningfork is vibrating at 170Hz, acting as the the timer and is checked in a feedback-loop regularly against a high-precision quartz vibrating at 9'350Hz -- the reference clock. So, basically a "conventional" watch -- exactly that was a tuningfork-movement in the 1960s -- that is regularly checked and adjusted against a high-precision quartz. Sounds familiar for the Seiko SpringDrive enthusiasts and it is exactly that: the Longines SpringDrive of the late '60s. Visionary and inspiring.

But even the mech-dogmatics (watch enthusiasts, that for emotional reasons strictly exclude any electronic watch) know this concept quite well, with one significant difference: the reference time is not inside their mechanical watch and is not automatically checked; instead this group is regularly checking their inherently incorrect mechanical watch against their electronic time-reference: their mobile phone. So, even the mechanical hardliner can't do without electronics entirely, and his approach doesn't look particularly elegant either, but at least only a clockwork mechanism in the old-fashioned style ticks on his wrist.

Back to the Longines Ultra-Quartz: the concept was usually not working with the technology available in the 1970s -- it took Seiko until the late 1990s to have a marketable product with this kybernetik-concept -- and so Longines replaced the experimental movement with a reliably working ETA-quartzmovement, whenever a customer complained in the mid-70s or later. This required a special movement-holder and even more, a new tube in the case at the 3 o'clock-position to hold the setting-crown stem (see photo), because the setting crown was originally at the caseback. These so manipulated Longines "Ultra-Quartz" gained the accurate and reliable time, but lost their horological relevance completely, unfortunately.

Our Longines Ultra-Quartz are horological important and original, of course: *klikk.