Charles Lindbergh and his Longines Hour Angle – two icons of aviation history
Have you ever taken a real close look at the Longines Lindbergh Hour Angle watch? It’s the spitting image of an instrument developed by the Swiss brand based in Saint-Imier in 1931 and is a watch that carries some serious historical significance. But why does it look the way it does? And why may you want to wear it today? Let’s find out!
Lindbergh absolutely winged it
US mail pilot Charles Lindbergh became what would today be an internet sensation when he completed a record-breaking flight lasting 33 hours and 30 minutes from Roosevelt Field (Long Island, NY) to Le Bourget Field (Paris, France) in 1927, becoming the first person to fly solo and nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean. The trans-Atlantic feat inside the Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis (which he also helped design, may I add), was a single-seat high-wing monoplane that Lindbergh navigated by “dead reckoning”.
25-year-old Charles Lindbergh and his Spirit of St. Louis
In other words, he absolutely “winged it”, to excuse the pun. And back then, with no such thing as GPS, the flight proved particularly challenging. Above the ocean, there were very few landmarks, just sky, water… more water and more sky! His decision not to use radio or celestial navigation proved to be a calculated risk that thankfully paid off, but on touch down it was clear that the latter was an indispensable skill – especially if incorporated into a wristwatch – cue the beginnings of the Hour Angle.
An updated version of the Weems
The Lindbergh Hour Angle is basically a updated version of the so-called Weems watch, developed in the mid-1920s by U.S. Navy officer and aviation pioneer Philip Van Horn Weems, which enabled the wearer to find longitude based on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
This is how the Longines Lindbergh Hour Angle Watch works
Markings on the dial and bezel made the exercise easier to perform, allowing a pilot to confidently find his position while over miles and miles of water. Every hour on the watch represented fifteen degrees, so figuring out the Greenwich Hour Angle for a celestial body in the sky gave the wearer his longitude. Of course, you would need to know the local solar time to complete the Hour Angle calculation, which is what the rotating bezel is for.
The famous Longines Lindbergh Hour Angle
Longines ruled the golden age of pilot’s watches
Today, the original Longines Hour Angle watch is relatively rare. Still, it holds considerable value to collectors, even though Weems continued to collaborate with Longines afterwards to simplify and modify the system. Watch enthusiasts are still intrigued by its design today, hence Longines’ commemorative timepiece in 1987 to mark 60 years since that iconic Lindbergh flight. The famous model has since been reissued in the brand’s Heritage collection, along with the Weems Second-Setting watch. The modern timepieces harken back to a time when Longines was king during the Golden Age of the pilot’s watch, adding real historical value to a collection.
The modern Longines Hour Angle blends vintage pilot style with mechanical fascination — a true instrument for enthusiasts.
The modern Longines Lindbergh Hour Angle watch bears the distinctive Breguet-shaped hour and minute hands and the 15-degree calibrated bezel markings for the angle time scale. Longines equips the modern version with an onion crown for easy-grip purposes and keeps the Hour Angle’s behemoth proportions with a 47.5 mm diameter. The stainless steel instrument also offers a transparent caseback, offering fascinated collectors a chance to observe the mechanical performance of the Calibre L699 at work.
Longines Lindbergh Hour Angle Watch — a true instrument for enthusiasts
Short and sweet
- Pilot watch: Longines Lindbergh Hour Angle
- Case: Stainless steel, ⌀ 47.5 millimetres, sapphire crystal, water-resistant to 3 bar
- Movement: Automatic, L699, 46-hour power reserve
- Functions: Hours, minutes, central second
- Strap: Alligator leather
- Price: 5,850 Euro
- Year: 2025
More information at longines.com
Longines Lindbergh Hour Angle
Charles Lindbergh captured the world’s imagination with one legendary flight
