Though perhaps now best known for its association with horse racing, Longines has been a staple of the Swiss watchmaking industry since the mid-19th century, and has gained a reputation for the masterfulness of its design.

After World War II, the manufacture from the ‘long meadows’ sought to stretch its creative and technical muscles, and the Conquest was one way in which Longines achieved such aims. Launched in 1954, it represented a ‘stepping-stone to progress’ for the brand, which had been a well known and much respected name in Swiss watchmaking for over a hundred years. 

The 1950s were a time when many maisons, free from the military contracts that had restricted production, began to experiment and implement new horological innovations. The watches that Longines released following the War reflected the sturdy construction of military watches, but utilized one of the manufacture’s early automatic wristwatch movements, the Calibre 22A, first released in 1946. The Conquest — like the Omega Seamaster, another benchmark of post-war horological design — was Longines’ way of blazing forward to unexplored frontiers while still keeping one foot firmly in the past.

This particular Conquest is a modern incarnation that breaks somewhat with the vintage mold of the original models but nonetheless retains the product line’s elegant proportions and subtleties. Dating to the 2020s, it’s housed in a 34mm stainless steel and gold-colored PVD coating with a sapphire crystal, a smooth PVD bezel, and a signed, screw-down PVD crown. Beneath the crystal is a white mother-of-pearl dial with 11 VS-SI diamond indices, a gold-colored PVD ‘sword’ handset, and a date window at 3 o’clock.

Powered by the quartz Longines L156 movement and paired to a matching, two-tone ‘Oyster’-style bracelet with a triple-safety folding clasp and a push-button opening mechanism, this elegant ladies’ Conquest is ready to hit the town. 

Give it a try and get ready to fall in love!