Longines “Calatrava” 6055 With Archive Extract

The Reference

The term “Calatrava” gets attached to a lot of watches, and while the term has come to refer broadly to simple time only dress watches, it really is the brand name for the line of simple time only dress watches from Patek Philippe. Starting with the Ref. 96 in 1932, Patek found the perfect formula and as they say copying is the greatest form of flattery and nearly every brand has created their version of the Calatrava. The example seen here comes from the great minds at Longines and fits the “Calatrava” archetype almost to a T with its simple 35mm case that puts the focus on the elegantly sparse dial with sub seconds at 6. The watch for auction today is lucky to come with an extract from the Longines archive that dates this watch to August of 1957 and was originally invoiced to the company Ostersetzer, which was at that time a retailer of Longines in Italy.

The History

In the vintage world, Longines is a chronograph company— the brand manufactured some of the best chronograph examples in the world both early and often. Longines created its first chronograph in a pocket watch application all the way back in 1878 and, just under 20 years later, served as the official timer of the 1896 Olympics in Athens. The brand created the first wristwatch chronograph in 1913 with its Caliber 13.33z and continued to narrowly focus on this segment of the market for the next 50 years.

Alongside developments in the chronograph sector of the market, Longines made some serious strides in time-only movement manufacturing as well as in water-resistant case making. The brands “tre tacche” and “sei tacche” screwback cases are highly collectible today, many times powered by the 12.68 family of movements— the time-only generation matching up with their caliber 13 chronographs.

The Case

The 35mm 18k rose gold case is in excellent condition. There are minimal signs of wear on the case except for a few hairlines on the snap on caseback. The crown is unsigned and the acrylic crystal is in excellent condition as well.

The Dial and Hands

The white dial is in great to excellent condition and  remains clean and untouched save for a small mark above the 7 o clock marker with no spotting. In the Calatrava style, the design is simple yet elegant with applied Arabic numerals and leaf style hands only accentuated by simple painted minute markers.

The Movement

This watch features a manually wound Longines calibre 27.0 movement. The watch runs well at +15 seconds / day according to the seller and the service history is unknown.

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