New Longines Conquest Heritage Central Power Reserve Features Light Blue Dial And Bracelet

The Longines Conquest plays a quiet but significant role in the brand’s history as its first named collection, trademarked all the way back in 1954. The Conquest models, which have also given rise to a successful dive-watch family, the HydroConquest, have evolved substantially over the decades since. The most recent revamp, in 2023, brought the collection back to its ‘50s roots, albeit at a more contemporary 41mm case diameter. The following year brought a more vintage-appropriate 38mm size for the core three-handed models as well as the original version of the Longines Conquest Heritage Central Power Reserve, a watch with an “everyday” complication exclusive to the brand: a dial-side display of the watch’s power reserve on a pair of concentric moving disks mounted in the center, behind the hands. This year, Longines adds the newest version of the cult-classic timepiece, with a light-blue opaline dial.

The watch, whose stainless steel case measures 38mm in diameter and 12.30mm thick, is a modem reimagining of a Longines watch from 1959, which introduced the central power-reserve indicator for the first time, and a follow-up to the 2024 model, which served as an homage piece for the 70th anniversary of the Conquest line that year. The case has alternating satin-brushed and polished finishing, a box-shaped sapphire crystal, a crown with a relief-engraved winged hourglass emblem (Longines’ longtime hallmark) and a screw-down caseback with a sapphire window to the movement.

In the details of the domed, icy blue dial is where we find the elements that make this watch truly special. Rhodium-plated skyscraper-style hands tell the time on applied, faceted, rhodium-plated indexes, while the date appears in a trapezoidal window in the unusual and prominent spot at 12 o’clock. Super-LumiNova coats both the hands and indexes for legibility in low light. At the center of the dial lies the useful display that lends the model its name. The power remaining in the watch’s mainspring is indicated via a baton-shaped indicator on the inner disk that points to the scale on the outer disk that indicates “0” to “64” hours, meaning the watch is in need of re-winding, or fully wound, respectively. 

The self-winding movement inside, Caliber L896.5 is exclusive to Longines, with a silicon balance spring that helps render it highly resistant to magnetic fields, and stores a power reserve of 72 hours, or three days — despite the highest number on the dial’s disk being “64.” The remaining eight hours are considered a “buffer” in which the watch will continue to operate with optimal torque in the mainspring before the power runs down to the last drop; a sharp eye will note the small dot between “64” and “0” on the hour-scale disk, which represents this increment of time. The movement also features a host of horological finishing treatments that are a definite value-add at this price range, including perlage on the bridges and côtes de Genève on the rotor, which is also graced with the emblematic winged hourglass logo.

The Longines Conquest Heritage Central Power Reserve is offered on a finely finished stainless steel bracelet, which fastens with a double-folding safety clasp with push-button opening and micro-adjustment, or on a more classical gray alligator leather strap with a simple steel pin-buckle closure. The watch retails for $4,300 on the strap (L1.648.4.92.2) and for $4,400 on the bracelet (L1.648.4.92.6). You can learn more at longines.com.