Longines Unveils Its Newest Spirit Zulu Time in Titanium

In 2019, Longines made a bold bet — a winning one, it turned out — on a brand-new collection called Spirit, whose classical aviation aesthetic was inspired by watches that the venerable Swiss maison made in the early 20th Century for pioneers of flight like Amelia Earhart, Clyde Pangborn, and Amy Johnson. This style of watch — not really a full-fledged pilot’s watch, not strictly a dress watch, but sort of an amalgam of both styles — was a departure for Longines, which was embarking on a new creative direction and new management with the impending retirement in 2020 of longtime CEO Walter Von Känel. The Spirit collection proved to be a leader model for Longines going forward, its original releases expanding into an array of colorways, sizes, and complications. In 2022, the Spirit collection, which already boasted chronograph options (and eventually a flyback chronograph), added its most crowd-pleasing iteration yet, the Spirit Zulu Time, a GMT watch that melded historical pedigree, an impressive new chronometer-rated movement, and impeccably legible design, all at a value-to-price ratio that dared enthusiasts to ignore it.

Almost concurrently with the release, and rapid expansion, of the Spirit line came another new element to the Longines portfolio: the use of titanium, rather than stainless steel, in the cases for many of the brand’s highest-profile releases. Titanium has been a go-to material in the watch industry for several decades now, but had been an extreme rarity at Longines. (Von Känel, in my last interview with him shortly before his retirement, admitted that he wasn’t much of a fan of the metal, whose use made it more difficult to keep prices below Longines’ long-established threshold.) The first Spirit three-hand models in titanium hit the market in 2021 and the Spirit Flyback Chronograph got a titanium makeover in 2023. Watch-industry trend watchers were surely envisioning a serially produced version of the Zulu Time with a similar titanium treatment (after a Hodinkee-branded limited edition debuted earlier this year), and now that watch is finally here.

As with its predecessors in the Spirit family, the new Zulu Time features a case made of grade 5 titanium, which is an alloy that is composed of about 90 percent pure titanium and small amounts of aluminum and vanadium. It is 30 percent lighter than steel while also being harder, stronger, and more scratch-resistant, as well as hypoallergenic and less heat-conducive. Longines wisely chose to go with the 39mm version of the Zulu Time case, introduced in 2023 as a more versatile and wearable follow-up to the original 42mm cases. The case measures 13.5mm in thickness, fairly midrange these days, and integrates into a three-link bracelet also made of grade 5 titanium. The finishing, as most would expect, is primarily sleek and brushed, with polished details that elevate the model from tool to luxury. 

Longines went for monochromatic sobriety in the dial and in the bidirectional, ceramic-insert GMT bezel. The former is executed in an anthracite gray that harmonizes with the metallic tones of the case and bracelet, while the latter is bisected into two shades of black — one matte-finished to represent daytime hours, the other polished (Longines calls it “intense” polishing) to indicate nighttime. The only splashes of color against these muted tones comes from the red, arrow-shaped tip of the GMT hand and the gold plating on the hour and minute hands and applied Arabic numerals. Luminous coating covers the hands and numerals, while the date peeks out unobtrusively at 6 o’clock, its gold numerals on a black background blending into the ensemble perfectly. 

Longines has equipped the Spirit Zulu Time Titanium with the same proprietary movement, Caliber L844.4, that animates all its steel-cased (and one steel-and-gold-cased) predecessors. Developed specifically for this watch by Longines’ Swatch Group sister brand and movement supplier ETA, it packs an elite-level power reserve of 72 hours and carries a COSC chronometer certification for its timekeeping performance. Thanks to its use of a silicon balance spring, the movement is also highly resistant to interference from magnetic fields. The only downside, for some, will be that this mechanism is hidden behind a solid caseback rather than on display behind a sapphire window; fortunately, that caseback is anything but barren or spartan, engraved with Longines’ historical winged hourglass logo over a meridian-crossed globe — a motif that drives home this watch’s overarching theme of multinational travel, and in the case of this new titanium version, the very essence of traveling light.

SPECS:

Longines Spirit Zulu Time Titanium

Reference:  L3.802.1.53.6

Case size: 39mm

Case thickness: 13.5mm

Lug to Lug: 46.8mm

Lug width: 21mm

Crystal: Domed Sapphire

Water Resistance: 100 meters

Movement: Automatic Longines L844.4 (COSC certified)

Price: $4,275