Earlier this year, to considerable fanfare on their part, Longines launched the Flyback Chronograph within their Spirit Collection. The Spirit Collection has been critical for Longines over these past few years. It?s a spot in the catalog where the brand is really trying to carve out a niche for themselves in the contemporary watch landscape. After years of being better than possibly any other brand at raiding the archives for heritage based reissues, the Spirit Collection seems like a conscious choice to branch out into something different – to prove that Longines has a foot in the modern watch world, and isn?t just playing the hits. For me, the Spirit Collection really gelled with the introduction of its first titanium watch. This no date execution of the Spirit in a super lightweight metal really felt like the brand finding a groove with a new product line, and they?ve now somewhat predictably added a titanium version of the Flyback Chronograph to the collection, adding some symmetry to the catalog and perhaps a more wearable version of an impressive, but large, chrono.
The broad strokes of the Flyback are virtually identical to the steel version issued earlier this year. We get a 42mm case that?s 17mm (yes, 17mm) thick, with a rotating 60 minute timing bezel with a ceramic insert, mounted to a matching titanium bracelet or a textile strap. The dial is anthracite, complementing the tone of the grade 5 titanium rather well, with subdials at 3:00 and 9:00 f...