Let us tell you why we’re here.
First of all, we’re collectors. To us, being a collector is not just acquiring watches; it’s about uncovering the history, stories, and relevance of the watches that fascinate us.
The twentieth century marks the era when a watch often served as its owner’s sole means of telling time, a period that preserves the wristwatch in amber, spanning both its emergence and decline as an essential tool.
The 1920s through to the late 1950s represent what many consider a golden age of watchmaking. While people are familiar with the Longines brand today, few know just how innovative Longines was during this period, considered at the time one of the preeminent watchmaking houses in the world. It was pioneering and best in class in all the categories that matter when evaluating quality in horology, a first among equals in the development of chronographs, chronometers, and instruments.
In our modern age, timekeeping is commonplace through a myriad of other devices; the phone in your pocket is more accurate than the most expensive mechanical watch ever produced. The wristwatch as a necessary tool has passed into history. The watches we explore could be either personal jewellery or instruments that made the difference between life and death.
When we started collecting, if you were interested in a particular watch, you spent time researching and learning everything you could about it. Amazingly, for a period that was only a few decades away, a lot of information on watches was not readily available or simply lost. We used to trade valuable knowledge through forums (those days seem behind us). We’d collect old adverts, catalogues, horological magazines and sift through them for information on the watches we were hunting. Collectors would keep personal databases of specific watches, noting serial number ranges, specifics of dials, the number of beads on a bezel, or the change of shape of a crown.
Instagram and social media took over a lot of that interaction; knowledge is harder to access, and over the decades we’ve seen collector websites disappear forever. That’s why we created Longines Icons. We wanted a home for research, a place collectors could come when exploring watches and where you can understand not just what makes certain references special, but why they might represent pivotal moments in watchmaking history.
Drop us a line if you have questions, corrections, or want to share your latest discovery. The best conversations in this hobby happen when we’re all learning from each other’s experiences and research.
George Pakkos & Eitan Arrusi
George Pakkos knew he was smitten with Longines as soon as he acquired his first 35mm time-only Tre Tacche, which led him down the path to chronographs, particularly the waterproof variants. He quickly discovered the vast breadth and variation in vintage Longines models from the 1920s, 30s, and 40s.
Over the past decade he has attended many private Longines Collectors meetings in St Imier and around the world. He has established a warm and strong relationship with Longines who have allowed him access to their archives, enabling him to write authoritative in-depth articles on vintage Longines. His passion for the history and beauty of the watches has led him to establish the “Longines Icons” website, where he plans to collaborate and continue to uncover and document the history of the brand.
Eitan Arrusi has been collecting and studying vintage watches for over 25 years. Initially he was bitten by them through the hours he spent in London’s Portobello Market. His taste is wide-ranging, with a particular passion for professional watches, especially early 20th century pieces. His greatest pleasure on this journey is the friends that he has made, and you can often find him sharing a meal and watches with them.