Pre-Owned Longines by Analog Shift Legend Diver Date 40990372/AS05710

WHY WE LOVE IT

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The Submariner and the Seamaster aren’t the only stars of the dive watch world.

In the 1960s, Longines made beautiful divers housed in oversized “compressor” cases. 42mm wide and featuring dual crowns — one to adjust the time and one to turn the internal bezel — these special cases became more watertight the deeper one dove. Brilliant! Now, it’s worth noting from a technical standpoint that the compressor case wasn’t any better at preventing water intrusion than a screw-down crown. But it was one attempt at improving the functionality of a watch that was, first and foremost, built to do a job. Despite their functional limitations — and due to their good looks — compressor cased-watches proved to be popular during the 1960s.

The modern Longines Legend Diver is based on vintage Longines compressor-cased divers from the golden age of SCUBA. This particular watch, the Reference L3.674.4, has been updated ever so slightly with a date wheel at 3 o’clock, which only adds to the piece’s utility. Housed in a 42mm, stainless steel compressor-style case with dual crowns, it features a black lacquered dial with stylized Arabic indices, an open minute track and vintage-colored lume. An internal timing bezel features Arabic indices at the cardinal points and a fully graduated minute scale, while a particularly legible handset including an arrow-shaped minute hand makes for quick registering of the time. 

In excellent condition throughout and showing only light wear, this Legend Diver is finished with sapphire crystal, a screw-down case back, 30m of water resistance, and the Longines Caliber L888 automatic movement with 72 hours of power reserve. It comes paired to a brown, vintage-style leather strap with a brushed steel pin buckle, though it could just as easily be right at home on a NATO, beads-of-rice, perlon, or other strap. 

If what you’re searching for is a dive watch that doesn’t look like everybody else’s, you’ve come to the right place!

OVERALL CONDITION

The case is in excellent condition overall showing signs of normal wear throughout. Gloss black dial with printed indices and inner-rotating dive timing bezel is in as-new condition with matching 'broad-arrow' handset. Hash-marked crowns.