Fuck, I looked at Longines and I sort of love a lot of their lines.
I'm a sucker for vintage inspired design so that's probably it.
Realistically I'll only could maybe afford the Conquest VHP 3 Hands (Sub 1k at MSRP).
The Conquest VHP is a high accuracy quartz (+/- 5 seconds of deviation a year) which definitely scratches that small precision kink (Is there really anything in my life where I need to get down to the second ? No. But I still love that I know the
actual time).
There's a number of cool features associated : You can set the hours and minutes independently, anti shock and magnetic mechanisms, you can put the watch into energy saving mode but it will still keep time, end of life indicator for the battery, perpetual calendar... And it comes in two sizes, 41 and 43mm.
Good balance between sports/dress, modern but not garish, pleasing visuals (the red accents). Not in love with the 12/6 indexes but in black they fade away in the dial, I think it's the better color choice, black and red can't fail. Think it makes for a good everyday watch, probably pairs well with most styles, very functional, slick and a watch with a decent amount of polish and weight to it.
Custom ETA movement exclusive to Longines too.
Probably one of the cheapest high accuracy watches you can get now, excluding radio and satellite watches (and I think the Longines looks classier than all of them) that achieves pinpoint accuracy via a different process, there's not a ton of other options at that price range. Citizen Chronomaster and Grand Seiko I love too (and closer to what
THE WATCH is to me) but it's not the same prize range at all. The Chronomasters are 60% more expensive...
Minuses : The Smart Crown has a ghost push function (VHP GMT and Chronograph use it but has no function here, one of those irritating details...), so-so luminance and water resistance to 50m only (which seems fine for that sort of watch but hurt the polyvalence a bit).
But Longines has a lot of nice vintage inspired offerings I drool over :
Conquest Heritage 35mm (maybe too small for today's standard... There's a 38.5mm version but I don't like the half index. Also date at 12, I'm not sure about that) and the Flagship Heritage in a similar style. The Military Heritage with light dials, blue hands and vintage leather straps (also massive power reserve). All good.
Even the Spirit line, which is their new Automatic line, is pretty slick. Chronometer certified and 100m water resistance, classic dial with nice details.
All too expensive and I already have pilot style or vintage dress watches so they would probably double in my collection.
Will maybe go to try some of those models in person still.