Longines Just Redesigned One Of Its Best-Selling Collections (And Added A Century-Old Chronograph)

It’s been a good year for Longines; the HydroConquest relaunch in March became one of 2026’s biggest commercial success stories, redesigning a classic with a new aesthetic (and a more accessible price point) that more than turned a few horological heads, the BH office included.

If you take a step back further still, Longines’ parent company Swatch Group is posting similar results, with sales up 8.5% year on year as many in the industry keep reminding themselves that customers’ spending habits continue to shift. Frankly, Longines seems to have found the winning formula.

So it’s rather fitting, then, that the collection getting the most comprehensive treatment from Longines this year is also the one that actually matters most to the business – even introducing a first for the brand to mark the occasion.

Longines Master Collection

The Master Collection has always been one of Longines’ classic collections – something that’s easy to forget, in an industry increasingly dominated by dive watches and luxury steel sports watches. So a year on, it’s rather exciting to see that the contemporary redesign touches almost every corner of the Longines Master Collection range.

When I first saw these references, I had a feeling we’d have the same flurry as the HydroConquest earlier in the year. The three-hand models now span 30mm, 34mm, 39mm, and 41mm, giving more choice and variance at a time where it’s near-impossible to predict which profile will be the flavour of the season. There is no accounting for taste, after all.

Across every size, Longines has removed the dial flange altogether; a simple change, but when you step up to the larger 39mm and 41mm models, the light blue shines, giving the stunning barleycorn pattern a lot more real estate across every size and even more fluidity on the wrist.

Powering these pieces is the exclusive Longines calibre L888.5, a self-winding mechanical movement that delivers up to 72 hours of power reserve, visible through the transparent sapphire caseback. And with the option for either an alligator strap or stainless steel, you’re getting quite a lot of variety at this price point.

Longines Master Collection Chrono Monopusher

Let’s start with the Chrono Monopusher – the first time a monopusher chronograph has ever appeared in the Master Collection, and it arrives more than a century after Longines built one of the very first monopusher chronographs designed for the wrist, back in 1911.

At the time, of course, most chronographs were still living in pocket watches. But that early innovation was pushed further by the brand in 1913, revealing the calibre 13.33Z, widely considered the first compact-sized chronograph movement in the world.

Today’s iteration runs on the Longines exclusive calibre L799.5, and it does exactly what a monopusher should: start, stop and reset the chronograph through a single pusher built into the crown, tracking a 60-second centre hand and a 30-minute counter at 3 o'clock.

Across 41mm, I’m also pleased to see Longines has continued its love affair with colour, with either a silver opaline or frosted blue barleycorn dial, snail-engraved subdials and applied Arabic numerals in rhodium or 5N rose gold.

I’m reminded of the brand’s more dressier response to the Master Collection we saw a couple of years ago when the watchmaker dropped a modern salmon-toned dial against laser-engraved numerals for its 190th anniversary. In fact, I can see today’s collection sharing the same longevity that its predecessor has enjoyed, for years to come.

Longines Master Collection Chrono Moonphase

Interestingly, Longines was building chronograph pocket watches with calendar and moonphase functions as far back as the early 20th century (including a quarter-repeater chronograph pocket watch from 1911 that still sits in the Longines Museum's collection today).

More than a century later, the Swiss luxury brand has taken that same pairing and brought it back for the Chrono Moonphase, and into the Master Collection for the first time.

Across the dial, it gets a touch more complicated than its contemporary siblings, with a small seconds and 24-hour indicator at the 9, a day/month indicator at 12, and the chronograph itself splits a 12-hour and moonphase counter at 6 o'clock. It may sound busy on paper, but never cluttered – increased legibility is still paramount across this aviation-inspired collection, with the same blue Arabic numerals contrasting the silver barleycorn dial.

Between the two, Longines reflects a brand simply unwilling to rest on its laurels to attempt something that I’d suggest is genuinely difficult and refresh its most important collection without changing what made it successful in the first place. Only now, with a little more technical intrigue for those paying attention.

longines.com