Longines Celebrates 120 Years with 2 New Limited Editions
Mr. Walter von Känel, President of Longines, presenting the new Longines Heritage Retrograde.
Longines is celebrating the 120th anniversary of the registration of a logo that is still used today by the famous St. Imier watchmaker. Registered with the FOIP in Switzerland in 1889, this factory mark, which consists of a winged hourglass and the name Longines, constitutes the oldest trademark still valid in its original form in the international registers kept by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). To mark the 120th anniversary of the original registration Longines has unveiled a themed exhibition at the Cité du Temps in Geneva and published a study about the logo, as well as creating two limited series of numbered watches, each of 120 pieces.
In 1867 Ernest Francillon founded the Longines factory by bringing out-workers employed by his trading office (which had been set up in 1832 by Auguste Agassiz) under one roof and introducing new manufacturing technology. At the same time he adopted the name Longines (from the local name of the site of his new factory) and chose a symbol to represent his company, the winged hourglass. This symbol has been continually used by Longines, albeit in various forms, since the company was founded to identify and characterise its products, and is still in used today.
On 27 May 1889 Ernest Francillon registered a factory mark consisting of a winged hourglass within a double circle which contained the signature EFCo (Ernest Francillon & Compagnie) and the name Longines. This mark was registered with the Swiss authority that dealt with the protection of trademarks at the time, namely the Federal Office for Intellectual Property (FOIP). For Longines the 1889 registration was the start of an important tradition of graphic and symbolic signatures. Since, for the first time, a trademark whose use and protection in its original form was to continue beyond the 21st century was legally recognised. The protection of the trademark was ensured at an international level in 1893 and makes Longines the oldest trademark still valid in its original form in the international registers of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
The registration of this logo was part of the industrialisation of watchmaking in Switzerland in the last third of the 19th century, in which Longines played a leading role. Initially, the trademark chosen by Longines – the winged hourglass – served to authenticate the company’s products. But it quickly became a means of fighting against counterfeiters who hoped to take advantage of the excellent reputation built up by the St. Imier watch manufacturer. Subsequently, the factory mark was used in other contexts apart from on the product itself and began to determine the visual identity of the brand. This logo, registered in 1889, has therefore been part and parcel of the development and construction of the Longines brand which, in line with its watchmaking heritage continues to use it to this day.
To highlight the context of adoption and protection of this trademark, Longines has organised an exhibition at the Cité du Temps in Geneva which includes both historical articles and original documents. It reveals the development of the brand, the symbol that embodies it and the creation of a watchmaking tradition. Longines has also published a study that analyses the history and the challenges of creating the Longines brand in relation to the registration of the original logo, still used today, in 1889. Finally, Longines has created two limited series of watches under the name of Longines Heritage Retrograde, each numbered from 1 to 120, as a tribute to a logo which has been protected since 1889.
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