Heritage watches carry the weight of provenance and when a vintage model gets re-issued, there’s a dichotomy of commercial musings: it ether hits all the right spots with watch lovers or it deviates too far from all the original elements which made it a brand icon that it alienates fans of the original model.

Then every so often, a new old classic delivers a sweet note in a respectful homage to the original timepiece and for Baselworld 2017, sixty years after the launch of the first model, we get a true classic gent’s watch in the form of a Longines Flagship Heritage 60th Anniversary.

New Old Classic: Longines Flagship Heritage 60th Anniversary

Gifted with a silvery opaline dial and slim, barely-there bezel, the Flagship Heritage was driven by a large manually wound 30L calibre. Taking its namesake from the idea of the Fleet Admiral’s ship, a flagship caravel relief stamped on the caseback in the same tradition of the predecessor. The brushed silvery dial is adorned with 8 indexes and 4 Arabic numerals, in yellow gold or rose gold colours.

The Longines Flagship Heritage 60th anniversary is available in numbered, limited edition models in precious metal: yellow or rose gold, and steel variants, using a modified ETA 2892 made exclusively for Longines as a L609 mechanical calibre in a classic 38.5mm. Exclusive, precious metal editions are limited to 60 pieces each while 1957 pieces have been produced in steel.

Longines Flagship Heritage 60th anniversary price

The stainless steel Longines Flagship Heritage 60th Anniversary is priced SG$3040 (1957 pieces) while gold variants are priced SG$11930 (60 pieces each).