Longines сағаттары: Швейцария дәстүрі мен сәні

Swiss watchmaker

Compagnie des Montres Longines, Francillon S. A., or simply Longines (lɔ̃ʒin), is a Swiss luxury watchmaker based in Saint Imier, Switzerland. Founded by Auguste Agassiz in 1832, the company has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Swatch Group and its predecessors since 1983. Its winged hourglass logo, registered in 1889, is the oldest unchanged active trademark registered with WIPO.

Longines was founded in Saint Imier in 1832 by Auguste Agassiz, a Swiss watchmaker and brother of biologist Louis Agassiz. Auguste had two partners, lawyers Henri Raiguel and Florian Morel; the company's original name was Raiguel Jeune & Cie. By 1846, Raigeul and Morel had retired from the watch industry, leaving Agassiz as sole company head.

In 1983, Longines' owner ASUAG merged with SSIH (which owned Omega SA) to form the Société Suisse de Microélectronique et d'Horlogerie (SMH). SMH became The Swatch Group in 1988, and Longines continued without R&D and production activities of its own. In the 1990's, Swatch differentiated and repositioned its various brands in order to better compete in all market segments, with Omega becoming the high end brand intended to compete with Rolex and Cartier, while Longines was positioned in a less expensive segment, its watches redesigned as objects of elegance and classicism, emphasizing the historical tradition of manufacture, as opposed to the craft of watchmaking. In 2019, Longines licensed its name and branding to Marcolin for a collection of men's and women's optical frames and sunglasses.

Longines began using the slogan "Elegance is an Attitude" in 1999. Their previous slogan, "The World's Most Honoured Watch" was used for most of the 20th century. The Longines Logo is the oldest registered trade mark still in use in its original form registered with the World Intellectual Property Organization.