1909ventilo's Blog

This is an . This photograph is from our auction catalog, signed photo by Lindbergh and memorabilia my husband collected. I didn’t realize exactly how this watch worked until I read about it on the internet, my hubby is so smart he always seeks out the best stuff! Fabulous collection, I thought I’d share.
“This model was designed by Charles Lindbergh for use by aviators to calculate their relative position in the sky over the globe and is quite rare. The watch is made of stainless steel with sterling rotating bezel.” http://www.1stdibs.com
“On May 20th, 1927, a 25-year-old pilot named Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Airport, New York, in
a plane named the “Spirit of St. Louis.His goal: to cross the Atlantic ocean, non-stop. Thirty-three-and-a-half hours
later, he landed at his planned destination, Le Bourget airport near Paris. At that time, Longines was the official
timekeeper of the International Aviation Industry. So the watch brand from Saint-Imier was quick to log this historic
flight. Soon after, Longines and Charles Lindbergh collaborated on a watch to be used by pilots which would enable them to determine exact longitude during long-distance flights. Known as the “Hour Angle” watch, this was one of
the first flight watches designed with a purpose.
This watch had an enormous bezel and an extra-large winding crown, which made it easy to wind, even with gloves
on. At 47.5mm across (due to its movement size), it was decades ahead of contemporary tastes. The large dial gave it
good legibility, necessary since the dial
incorporated more than just time Although Longines didn’t make
“flight watches” its focus, it nonetheless offered one of the greatest contributions to pilot watch history 25 years
before radar and 50 or more years before GPS.”

http://horologium.com.au/2012/05/07/a-look-at-a-1939-longines-lindbergh/