Few brands have seen as much sustained success with their vintage-inspired designs as has Longines. With a slew of recent additions to retro-chic Heritage collection ? among them the Heritage Classic Chronograph 1946, Heritage Military 1938, and Heritage Classic Tuxedo ? the Saint-Imier based brand has built upon its long history to enhance its contemporary appeal.

In the past year, whether as a result of changing consumer tastes or a reduced pool of historical designs to draw from, Longines has noticeably shifted its focus, from faithfully re-creating vintage designs to launch new models to revisiting previously released models with new materials and colorways. We first witnessed this in launch of the Heritage Legend Diver in bronze in fall of 2020, followed by the Avigation BigEye in titanium a few months later. At the start of this summer, the brand released its latest model in this vein, the new Heritage Classic Black ?Sector Dial,? a 1930s-inspired time-only watch that follows up the successful silver-dial edition launched in 2019. Recently, we had an opportunity to go hands-on with the timepiece.
At first glance, the new black-dialed edition has much of the same intrigue as its silver-dialed predecessor, with its simple brushed steel case serving as a simple canvas for the fascinating dial that gives the watch its name and serves as its undisputed main draw. The overall look is formal and dressy but versatile, the sectored layout of the brushed outer ar...