There?s nothing quite as distinctive ? and, in some cases, as polarizing ? in the arena of vintage-style timepieces as a really period-accurate replica pilot?s watch, and Longines ? whose century-plus timepiece archives have yielded an expansive and increasingly popular collection of Heritage models ? has taken the style to a new level with the Avigation Watch Type A7 1935, a re-edition of a watch that debuted in that model name’s suffix year and which was worn by U.S. Army pilots in the years leading up to World War II.
The Longines Avigation Watch Type A-7 1935 is based on a model that met a strict set of standards for U.S. Army pilots.
The watch is not ?timeless? in its design, as some other historically inspired models could be described, but truly a product of its time ? with its big, retro-font Arabic numerals, railway-track minutes scale, pocketwatch-style stacked subdials, onion crown, and, most notably the ?tilted? design of the time display, a remnant of the 1935 model?s adherence to a precise set of criteria set by its customers, the U.S. Army (this was before the Air Force was spun off as its own branch of the military, in 1947). These standards ? which any timepiece earning the Type A-7 designation were required to meet ? included not only top-notch precision and sturdiness but also ideal legibility in the cockpit on aerial missions, hence the 40-degree angle of the dial to the right, which enabled a pilot, who would customarily wear the watch on the insi...