Affordable Watches: Longines Heritage Diver Watch Reaches New Depths

By Ryan Walsh

Summer is finally around the corner, and with it comes a wealth of water activities, including diving. This year, Longines introduces its Heritage Diver that is a re-issue of 1970’s diver watches it once produced and pays tribute to the underwater adventurer. These are truly intriguing watches – and one does not have to look far to see the similarities between the Heritage Dive watches and the original versions. In short, the watch is a nice package of function, form and vintage inspiration. The sleek stainless steel, cushion-shaped Heritage Diver is available as a three hand watch or as a chronograph, both sporting the same 43mm dimensions as the original watches. Both watches share the same case shape, as well as a bi-directional rotating inner flange. They feature screw-in caseback, crown and bezel to ensure water resistance to 30 bar – or 300 meters. The bold color scheme of both watches is a daring red and black.

The three hand diver watch has a self- winding mechanical movement that beats at 28’800 vibrations per hour and offers 38 hours of power reserve. The dial is semi-gloss black, with 11 illuminated markers at each hour except at 3:00, where the date is displayed. The red hand and red minute zones offer dramatic contrast. In this watch, the graduated scale from 0 to 60 enables the diver to calculate how long he or she has been underwater (by synchronizing t 12:00 hour symbol with the minute hand). The inner flange is activated via the crown at 2:00. This watch ties together nicely with a black rubber strap, or synthetic strap and retails for a cool $2,550.

Housing a different movement, the Chronograph provides 42 hours or power reserve. In this watch, though, the graduated scale on the flange goes from 60 down to 0 to enable the diver to calculate the remaining dive time left in order to allow for decompression when returning to he surface. This is done by synchronizing a certain point with the minute hands. Also different: at 3:00 resides the seconds counter, and at the 9:00 the 30 minute counter offers aesthetic balance and function. With the added features for the chronograph, the date is displayed at 6:00. The chrono utilizes a double security folding clasp and sells for a nice $3,750.