Only a few hours left until the Roland Garros tournament’s men's final takes place; yesterday Ostapenko won over Halep, and today Rafa Nadal will try to conquer his tenth title (unless Wawrinka beats him this afternoon). This year marks the anniversary of the partnership between Longines and the organizer of the tournament, and Longines has been designated as the official time-keeper of the event. The Swiss manufacturer’s relationship with keeping the time for sport events is quite intense and we talked about it in depth when we visited the brand’s headquarter in St.Imier; when it comes to tennis, this relationship goes back a long time, and, among the ambassadors of the brands, the brand can boast the golden couple of the 90s tennis; Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi.
It is to the female world – that will soon have its own and exclusively dedicated column on Horbiter® – that Longines decided to dedicate its ten year collaboration anniversary with Roland Garros and its achievements in sports time-keeping and chronometry. This is a world that reached its apex with the recent presentation of a high frequency caliber: the Longines Conquest VHP that we introduced on our pages already.
The celebration of such an event is always marked by a Conquest, but a special edition for women, directly out of the most famous sports collection of the brand and it is the Longines Conquest Roland Garros; a limited edition version of the three counter sports chronograph. The brand with the winged hourglass as its logo already declined this timepiece into different versions, like the St.Moritz, the Horse Racing or the Alpine Skiing (and the Roland Garros for him, released in 2015); each of these versions is dedicated to one of the disciplines, in which Longines is present as a time-keeper or through one of its sports ambassadors.
For each one of the men's chronographs, Longines created the female version of its Conquest, and it did the same with the Longines Conquest Roland Garros that recreates the very same geometry as the 41mm man’s edition, but in a smaller size (by 5mm); a feature that accentuates the narrow V layout of the three chrono counters. This characteristic, together with the elongated and curved lugs, and the crown protected by shoulders that extend all the way up to the chrono buttons, represents a style motif that clearly marks every single Conquest timepiece. This is a type of geometry that, in the last few years, Longines has been able to further underline. The main difference between the male version and the female version doesn’t simply lie in the size, but, above all, in the functions of the two quartz calibers.
The Longines Conquest Roland Garros has at 2 o'clock the one tenth of a second counter, whereas the man’s version is equipped with the 440 caliber that can time the one hundredth of a second. At 6 o’clock are the small seconds, while at 9 o’clock lies the instant 30 minute counter. The dial is anthracite color that has undergone a sunray treatment, and the orange accents that you can see on the counters, on the external rehaut, and on the central chrono counter hand all remind us of the red clay color of the Roland Garros courts. The logo of the prestigious tournament is engraved on the case back with its glossy and matted finish alternations, and an embossed logo. The Longines Conquest Roland Garros is available, like its man’s counterpart, exclusively with a stainless steel bracelet, and a deployant clasp; the retail price totals 1,180 euro.
(Photo credit: courtesy of Longines)
Gaetano C @Horbiter®
@Gaetano Cimmino
