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Longines ((:lɔ̃ʒin), ) is a luxury watch company based in Saint-Imier, Switzerland. Founded by Auguste Agassiz in 1832, it is owned by the Swatch Group. Its winged hourglass logo is the oldest registered for a watchmaker. Longines is known for its "Aviators" watches. A company director was a friend of Charles Lindbergh; after his transatlantic flight, Lindbergh designed a pilot watch to help with air navigation. Built to his specifications, it is still produced today. Longines provided timers used at the first modern Olympics in 1896. In 1899, a Longines watch went to the North Pole with Arctic explorer Luigi Amedeo of Savoy. It was the first to use automatic timekeeping for the Federal Gymnastics, at Basel in 1912. Today, Longines sells sport watches and chronographs. ==History== Based in Saint-Imier since 1832, the ''Compagnie des Montres Longines Francillon S.A.'' was among the world’s leading watch companies. In 2007, Longines had its 175th anniversary. The brand evolved from a ''comptoir''〔In a business system based on an agreement between producers or salesmen, the ''comptoir'' acts as the intermediary between them and their customers.〕 to a full-fledged manufacturing〔A ''manufacture'' is a watch factory which produces the components (particularly the ''ébauche'') needed for the manufacture of its products. The ''ébauche'' is an incomplete watch movement sold as a set of loose parts, comprising the main plate, the bridges, the train, the winding and setting mechanism and the regulator.〕 operation and then back down to an ''établisseur''〔An ''établisseur'' is a watch factory which only assembles watches, without itself producing the components, which it buys from specialist suppliers.〕 today, since the early 1980s, as a Swatch Group company. The Longines’ story began in 1832, when Auguste Agassiz, brother of naturalist Louis Agassiz, found a job in the hamlet of Saint-Imier, joining Comptoir Horloger Raiguel Jeune (a trader of watch parts), in 1833 taking over the business when he and two of his associates set up a company named Comptoir Raiguel Jeue & Cie. The venture was run on the then-prevailing business model based on piecework by people making or processing watch parts in their own homes for the account of a jobber who delivered the blanks, or rough parts, and picked up and paid for the finished ones. The company soon found ways to sell its timepieces in distant markets, not least in the Americas. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Longines」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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