What do people in your country think about Longines watches?

[gobigkid]

Hi all,

I am looking at the home site of watchuseek forum right now and see the following number of viewer:
- Breitling: 44
- Casio : 263 (what a huge number)
- Longines: 15
- Omega: 222
- Seiko & Citizen: 222 also
- Tag Heuer: 68
- Tissot: 31

Well, these numbers have not changed so much since I joined watchuseek. Could anyone explain this to me?
Why are there so few viewers in Longines sub-forums? In my small country - Vietnam, Longines is a brand of prestige, classic, elegance and luxury. In short, I expected a much larger number of viewer of this sub-forums.
Could you please share what do people in your country usually think about Longines watches? and if could, other brands as well.

Thank you very much.

[seoulseeker]

It's all about the brands marketing - Longines is a brand with a great name, and great timepieces, but the Swatch group doesn't advertise it nearly as heavily as, say, Omega. Breitling and TAG as well (non swatch group), spend fortunes on marketing just to get their names out there. Longines on the other hand, tends to be marketed fairly little (and mostly in Asia).

On the other end of the spectrum, brands like Tissot and Casio are relatively affordable, so tend to attract a different crowd of potential buyers and collectors.

So in the end, Longines occupies somewhat of a niche market at the moment... Swatch group is doing their best to keep it under Omegas shadow - so when time comes for people to upgrade their cheaper watch, most skip right over Longines and head for a more marketed name like TAG, Rolex, Breitling or Omega... It's a shame really, but it helps keep prices reasonable.

I'm sure most on WUS would rank the brands you posted in the following order or similar with regards to quality:

Omega
Breitling
Longines
TAG Heuer
Tissot
Seiko and Citizen (Not including Grand Seiko etc..)
Casio

[The Duke]

My cousin and his fiancé just got back from two weeks in France, and they said they saw Longines everywhere. I don't own one but I have always thought highly of the brand.

[covalatte]

Before I had any interest in watches (back in uni when I used to wear a $170 Swatch chrono irony), I hadn't really heard of the Longines brand before.

I first noticed the brand when they started marketing the brand with Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf. But even then it wasn't something I was interested in buying.

But then I saw the Master Collection moonphase a year ago, but it was love at first sight.

[heb]

Hello,
In the US, very little if anything at all. Some of the folks in the 60+ age group would be familiar with the name from advertising on old sports stadium score boards, but that's about it.

heb

[tatt169]

Over in England, the brand is not recognised much at all. The best example i can give is when friends ask about my Hydroconquest then when i explain it's a Longines i don't get much of a response but a blank look and the ' oh, Long-jeans' (Clearly never heard of them) .. i have a feeling if it was a Tag Heuer i would gauge a different response . I personally prefer the brand and i don't mind that to many people not into watches it will go under the radar. To the non WIS here the idea of a nice watch falls with Tag or Rolex

[gobigkid]

It's all about the brands marketing ....

Many thanks to seoulseeker. Your information and list are all interesting. Tag, Breitling and Omega are definitely spending a lot of money marketing their products.

My cousin and his fiancé just got back from two weeks in France, and they said they saw Longines everywhere. I don't own one but I have always thought highly of the brand.

wow, "everywhere", look forward to travel to France.

Before I had any interest in watches (back in uni when I used to wear a $170 Swatch chrono irony), I hadn't really heard of the Longines brand before.

I first noticed the brand when they started marketing the brand with Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf. But even then it wasn't something I was interested in buying.

But then I saw the Master Collection moonphase a year ago, but it was love at first sight.

Master Collection moonphase IMHO is the most "Longines" collection. (unfortunately, a little too old for a 24 year-old like me)

Hello,
In the US, very little if anything at all. Some of the folks in the 60+ age group would be familiar with the name from advertising on old sports stadium score boards, but that's about it.

heb

So what brands are popular and highly recognizable in the US?

Over in England, the brand is not recognised much at all. The best example i can give is when friends ask about my Hydroconquest then when i explain it's a Longines i don't get much of a response but a blank look and the ' oh, Long-jeans' (Clearly never heard of them) .. i have a feeling if it was a Tag Heuer i would gauge a different response . I personally prefer the brand and i don't mind that to many people not into watches it will go under the radar. To the non WIS here the idea of a nice watch falls with Tag or Rolex

Thank you. The fact that your friends ask about the Hydroconquest proved that it is a good looking watch :)

[dip1683]

I think it is all about marketing. In India Tag and Omega(swatch group) markets their watches with all the big film super-stars. Naturally a status/recognition/attraction or whatever you call it is associated with these two brands and people naturally goes for these two brands. I have known people owning Tag without knowing anything about the watch. What is more surprising is, they bought Tag quartz and does not have any idea about automatics and does not give a damn whether it is a quartz or automatic. As long as it is Tag, they are happy.

Among higher brands, here Tag and Omega sells like hot cakes, much more than Rolexes or other brands. And I think one of the reason behind the high price that you pay for Tag and Omega is also because of the millions these two companies are spending on their marketing.

Though I think Longines is a very good quality watch and it has got its own admirers. I am getting a hydroconquest very soon. I also love the master collection moon-phase and wish to buy that someday.


Regards
Dip

[Enoran]

There's a few only-Longines boutiques here in Singapore. Curiously, the Tag boutique are never too far away from them. In Marina Square mall, the Longines is in between the Tag and Raymond Weil boutiques and 20m away, there's the Maurice Lacroix boutique.

Swatch Singapore has done a decent job in pushing Longines as an entry-luxury brand here imo. Time-to-time, there's the longines commercial with the ladies ambassadors on free-to-air tv. Compared to advertising by Rolex, Omega & Tag, definitely less adventurous.

[Monocrom]

Longines used to be very well known in America as a luxury brand. There was even mention of the company in an episode of "All in the Family."

But that was decades ago. In America, everyone knows Rolex, Casio, Timex, Seiko, and Citizen. Ask anyone younger than 30 about Longines, and they'll stare at you with a blank look on their face.