Longines has added four new blue watches to its Spirit collection: two Spirit Pilot three-hand models and two Spirit Pilot Flyback chronographs, all with matt blue dials and all COSC-certified chronometers. They arrived this autumn, and they're a good excuse to look at why Longines and the sky go together, and at the vintage Swiss pieces in our vault that come from the same watchmaking tradition.
Nearly a Century in the Cockpit
Longines has been based in Saint-Imier, Switzerland, since 1832, and its link with aviation goes back nearly a hundred years. The brand counts pioneers such as Amelia Earhart, Elinor Smith and Richard Byrd among the aviators it has equipped, from transatlantic flights to polar expeditions. The Spirit collection was introduced in 2020 to celebrate those men and women and bring that heritage into a modern watch.
There's a nice detail in the launch timing too. In Japan, the new Flyback went on sale on 4 October, the anniversary of the day in 1931 when American aviators Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon took off from Misawa with Longines watches. The next day they completed the first non-stop flight across the Pacific, from Japan to the United States.
The Spirit Pilot: A Clean Three-Hander in Blue
The Spirit Pilot first arrived in 2025, and now it comes in blue. It has a 39mm stainless steel case, 11.5mm thick, with a screw-in crown and a screw-down case back for 100 metres of water resistance. The matt blue dial carries applied Arabic numerals and silvered hands with Super-LumiNova, so it stays easy to read, which is exactly what a pilot's watch is for.
Inside is the automatic Longines-exclusive calibre L888.4, with a silicon balance spring, magnetic resistance Longines says is up to ten times the ISO 764 standard, and up to 72 hours of power reserve. You can have it on a steel bracelet with a micro-adjustable clasp or on a blue rubber strap. UK prices are £2,300 on rubber and £2,600 on the bracelet.
The Spirit Pilot Flyback: A Nod to a 1935 Patent
The Flyback is the more technical of the two. A flyback chronograph lets you reset and restart the timer with a single push, without stopping it first, which was a real help for pilots timing legs of a flight. Longines developed the function in the early 1930s and filed its flyback patent in 1935.
The new version has a 39.5mm steel case, just 13.4mm thick, a bidirectional bezel with a blue ceramic countdown insert and a box-shaped sapphire crystal. It runs on the hand-wound column-wheel calibre L792.4, with a silicon balance spring and up to 68 hours of power reserve, and you can watch it work through the sapphire case back.
It's priced at £4,350 on rubber and £4,550 on the steel bracelet.
Swiss Watchmaking From Our Vault
We love that Longines chose a hand-wound movement for its flagship chronograph. Winding a watch each morning is one of the simple pleasures of vintage watches, and you don't need £4,000 to enjoy it. These Swiss pieces are in stock right now:
- Vintage Ingersoll 7 Jewels Ladies Mechanical Watch | Small Seconds | Swiss Made | Hand-Wind | Art Deco Style, £85. A hand-wound Swiss watch with a small seconds dial, the same layout you'll find at 9 o'clock on the new Flyback.
- Vintage Gillux Ladies Mechanical Watch | 17 Jewels Incabloc | Gold Tone Bracelet | Swiss Made, £35. A 17-jewel Swiss mechanical with Incabloc shock protection, a great first step into wind-up watches.
- Vintage Helvetia Ladies Manual Wind Watch | Gold Tone Bracelet | Textured Silver Dial | Swiss Made, £35. A manual-wind Swiss dress watch with a textured silver dial.
- Vintage Omega De Ville Gold-Tone Dress Watch | Swiss Made | Champagne Dial, £345. Longines' Swatch Group stablemate, in its classic dress-watch form. Read our history of the Omega De Ville.
Every watch we sell has been checked by our in-house specialists, and you can browse more pieces in our In the Safe collection.
Final Thoughts
The new blue Spirit models aren't a reinvention. They're Longines doing what it does well: a legible pilot's watch with serious chronometer credentials and a flyback chronograph that honours its own 1935 patent. And if you'd rather start with a piece that already has decades on the clock, the vault is a great place to begin.
Explore more vintage pieces at skylinesjewellery.co.uk, and catch us live on TILT every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday at 9pm.
Image credits: Longines Spirit Pilot and Spirit Pilot Flyback press images courtesy of Longines (official press kit, September 2026). Specifications from the same press kit; UK prices from Watch Insider; Japan launch date from The Swatch Group (Japan).