Online Auction II

2025/2/8

Lot 16

Longines
Charles Lindbergh - Hour Angle Watch

An aviator's heavy "hour angle" navigation watch with chronograph, date and German weekday indicator

estimated
1.5002.500 €
Price realized
-
specific features
Case
Steel/18 K gold, glazed push back, bidirectional rotating gold bezel with angle horaire.
Dial
White, silvered registers.
Movement
Automatic.
Ref.L2 602 5
Cal.L.674.7
Diam.42 mm
Circa1995
Ctry.Switzerland


In the early years of aviation between 1920 and 1930 the majority of aviators wore watches created by Longines. The main reason for this was Longines' advantage in innovation, their most notable piece at the time being the Hour Angle watch.
As Earth makes one rotation of 360 degrees, a 12-hour dial is a useful tool for dividing up that distance over time. With the inner rotating bezel the aviator could use the hands of the watch to pinpoint his location accurately.