Longines Legend Diver

A popular classic receives a modern twist

Boasting the oldest, unchanged logo in the world (a winged hourglass, registered 1889) Longines has pedigree and heritage on its side. Over the past few years, the “middle price segment” brand has busied itself releasing a host of historically inspired pieces from its Heritage Collection. These include the Avigation Type A-7 1935 (a handsome chronograph inspired by a Thirties watch for the US Army Air Force); the Lindbergh Hour Angle Watch

(an outlandish, outsized wristwatch covered with numerals, measures and details); and the Longines RailRoad Pocket Watch (based on one issued to railway workers in the Sixties that showed the time in a 24-hour format).

One of the best-looking, and more straightforward, pieces in the collection is the Legend Diver, a diving watch first produced in the Sixties and popular since its reissue in 2007. This year, the Swiss brand has given the model a distinctive twist by coating it in black PVD, affording the 42mm stainless steel case a sleek, uniform matte appearance that is both minimalist and masculine. It also faithfully reproduces the sporty silhouette of the original with its double crowns — one winds the watch and the other operates the internal rotating divers’ bezel to a professional-grade water resistance of 300m. The inner rotating bezel can be locked into place by its dedicated crown, ensuring the diver knows how long he’s been down. It’s a great design set off by the extra-legible typography, helpful if you really are 300m underwater, with indices, numerals and hands coated with glow-in-the-dark SuperLumiNova. Comfortable, sporty and less overbearing than some of its recent relatives, it’s one of the Esquire team’s standouts for 2018.

“The Longines Legend Diver is a reimagination from the heyday of undersea exploration and military and sports diving,” says vice-president Juan-Carlos Capelli. “We have given it the reliability of present-day watches by equipping it with high-performance technical characteristics. It is the perfect example of the brand’s spirit, to continually spotlight history through art and elegance.”

£1,460; longines.com