To say that Longines has had a long and fruitful relationship with all forms of equestrian sports is an understatement. For the longest time, the watchmaker has been synonymous with all things equestrian going back as far as 1878 when, thanks to new mechanical processes, Longines developed its first chronograph movement. With that resulting timepiece, measurement to the second was made possible. This led to the Swiss watchmaker becoming a mainstay on American racetracks, recording and timing equestrian races and events, as early as the late 19th century.
One of those milestone chronographs still exists today and is kept at the Longines museum in Saint-Imier. This Lépine metal pocket watch displayed a jockey accompanied by his mount and was the literal grand daddy of all the modern Longines timepieces borne of the watchmaker’s partnerships with world-renowned institutions, races, and jumping competitions around the globe. To pay tribute to that long and storied history, Longines used that metal pocket watch as inspiration to create the Equestrian Pocket Watch Jockey 1878, an 18K rose gold pocket watch that reproduces that first chronograph model that displayed a jockey accompanied by his mount.
Made to serve as witness to the tight bonds that link Longines with equestrian sports, this tribute pocket watch has been produced in a very limited run of only twenty pieces, each of which is numbered. It has a diameter of 55 mm, and displays the hours, minutes and small seconds at 6 o’clock using elegant blued steel hands. In keeping with its timing vocation, the pocket watch is capable of keeping the time to the second, thanks to the chronograph’s central hand. And in keeping with its classic style, the piece is endowed with a polished white-lacquered dial decorated with large Roman numerals, while the finely crafted bow is made in the image of the timepiece that inspired it.
The chronograph functions of the manually wound column-wheel chronograph Calibre L790.2 that powers the Equestrian Pocket Watch Jockey 1878 is activated via a single push button on the crown, the blued steel column wheel of which can be admired by opening the engraved cover. And while the movement formerly saw life as the ETA A08.L31 it was still made and modified especially for Longines. Thus, Calibre L790.2 oscillates at 28,800 vibrations per hour and can remain autonomous for 48 hours when fully wound.