If you?ve got it, they say, flaunt it. And Longines, with a watchmaking history that stretches back to 1832, has taken this advice to heart, flaunting its rich timepiece archives with its ever-growing Heritage Collection of vintage-inspired pieces. Several new additions to the collection have already made their debut this year, including the Legend Diver and Avigation Bigeye, and I recently had the opportunity to wear and review my favorite of the 2017 releases: the Longines Heritage Chronograph 1940, a classically clean, eminently affordable Swiss-made chronograph that takes its cues from one of the brand’s mid-20th-century museum pieces.

The watch is based on a Longines chronograph from (as one would expect) 1940, a model now residing in the brand’s extensive archive of vintage pieces at its museum in Saint-Imier, Switzerland, which also happens to be the town where Longines was founded, and where it still makes timepieces today. The round case measures a very contemporary 41 mm in diameter, with a polished finish across most of its many surfaces. It?s fronted by a very thin, stationary bezel that frames a striking, bicompax dial, whose metallic, vertical brushed-pattern finish channels the look and spirit of the vintage piece. Contrasting the round smoothness of the case are the somewhat sharply angled lugs, whose surfaces also sport a gleaming polished finish. The crown is grooved and somewhat small, set close to the case, and emblazoned with a small Longin...