Longines Conquest V.H.P. chronograph with carbon dial

At Basleworld 2017, Longines will present a new edition of the Conquest V.H.P. (Very High Precision), one of their success stories from the 80’s, when quartz was the king. The V.H.P. movement was a major milestone for Longines, a brand that has a long history of using quartz for high-precision timekeeping.

Longines’ first quartz clock that became the heart of Chronocinégines, a timekeeping instrument that included a 16 mm camera attached to a quartz clock.

In 1954, the brand developed their first quartz clock, which would quickly set a long series of precision records at the Neuchâtel Observatory. It was housed in the mythical Chronocinégines, an instrument that became a pioneer in the history of timekeeping, as it provided judges with a film strip composed of a series of prints at 1/100th of a second, allowing them to follow the movement of the athletes at the moment they crossed the finish line.

Longines Ultra-Quartz from 1969

Longines Conquest V.H.P. from 1984

1969 is quite an important date in the history of watches, it was the year when quartz watches started to be mass produced with the launch of the Seiko Astron and the Longines Ultra-Quartz. The first Conquest V.H.P. is presented in 1984, setting a precision record for that time.

Longines Conquest V.H.P. chronograph and three hands/calendar.

The Conquest V.H.P. are equipped with a remarkable movement developed by ETA in exclusivity for Longines, capable of high degree of precision for an analogue watch (± 5 s/yr) and its ability to reset its hands after an impact or exposure to a magnetic field, using the GPD (gear position detection) system. On top of this, it comes with a perpetual calendar and a long battery life. It also features an E.O.L. indicator to signal the end of battery life.

There two main models of the Conquest V.H.P.: a three hands/calendar in 41 mm or 43 mm, and a chronograph measuring 42 or 44 mm. Each model comes in four flavours, with blue, carbon, silver or black dials. On the three hands models, the bold 12 is balanced by an equally large 6 while the date is placed at 3 o’clock. When it comes to the chronographs, the dial has a three-compax layout, with a 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock, a 12-hour counter at 9 o’clock and a 60-second counter in the centre.

The Longines Conquest V.H.P. will probably hit the shelves later this year, probably sometimes during the summer. We don’t have the official MSRP for Canada, but other blogs are quoting CHF 950 and CHF 990 for the three-hands models and CHF 1,550 and CHF 1,590 for the chronographs. Our best guess is that they will be in the range of $1,200 to $2,100 CAD.

For more about Longines, go to www.longines.com