I fell in love with the Legend Diver 39mm the first time I saw it, and of course have now followed through with a purchase. All of the reasons mentioned drew me to the watch: the fact it was 39mm, internal bezel, no date complication, and there wasn't any other watch in this price range that I felt could really compete. It won't be my last Longines watch, I love what they're doing.
So this became my first ever watch over $250 last month; I had no idea the Legend also appealed to seasoned collectors too. I was looking for a less obvious & more unique quality diver from a well established brand. I also appreciate the versatility of its appearance. There doesn't seem to be any situation where this watch would look out of place for me. Weekends, weekdays, work, date night, travel. The beads of rice bracelet makes it feel a notch dressier along the sport - dress spectrum. It also does wear thinner than the specs indicate because the thick sapphire just disappears; it has antireflective coating on both sides. Between the Legend and my G-Shock I'm fully covered.
If I was releasing my first dive watch, it would most definitely have a diameter of 39mm to 40mm with a L2L between 46mm to 48mm. 12.5mm in thickness or under. 20mm lug. It's just the safest dimensions that generally pleases the small wrists, average wrists, and large wrists.
I like diver's between 37mm (with a long lug to lug) to 40mm. I currently have two 38mm divers. I like that size, too. Never had a 38.5mm watch. @@yusufbest4475
I absolutely love this watch and have already tried it twice at the AD. I loved the black, but cannot justify another black dial in my collection, but was a little underwhelmed by the blue version. I will not pull the trigger just yet, as I assume Longines will release new colors this year or next. But this is definitely a watch I want to own. It's quirky, it's dressy, it's purpose-built and most importantly it's truly unique. As you mentioned a couple of times, there's nothing quite like it. Also you forgot to mention it's now COSC certified, which in my book is a big plus. Absolutely killer review, thank you!
Always been a fan of The Legend Diver ever since I saw it on a billboard back in who can remember when. The size held me back, then allll the color iterations made my head spin. But THIS. I will probably be pulling the trigger. But the blue or the black hmnnnnn…
I just bought one a week ago and have been wearing it this whole week. I got the 39mm in blue on the BOR bracelet. I agree with all your points. I don't do dress watches. My lifestyle doesn't really lend many opportunities for such watches. However, I did find myself going to watch the Nutcracker around Christmas and that was the few times I could and wanted to dress up to go out. I did struggle with finding a proper watch to match my dressed up attire. As such, I feel this new LLD39 may actually serve such an occasion well the next time I need a dress watch. It's still a diver and I outfit with different straps to play into the more tool and sport vibe most of the time. But, I feel this will work so well on the BOR bracelet or pair with an alligator or ostrich strap to dress up.
I saw one today at my local Bucherer boutique while I was inquiring about an OP36, BB36 and 54. The AD showed me the Longines and I was very intrigued. The fit was first rate and the fact that it doesn’t have an exterior bezel is important to me. A diver that doesn’t look like a diver. I’m also a fan of the beads of rice look. I’m considering (too) many options to gift myself for a milestone birthday. Now I have another!
You forgot the Rado Captain Cook. The Rado is a very similar design with a slender profile that is more dress than diver tool watch. it also has a beads of rice bracelet. As for Longines, the brand is very underrated here in the US. I find their watches very elegant and great value for the price.
Thanks so much for mentioning the 36mm! Didn't realise it existed and it'd be my pick. Nice though the Legend is, the design is just a bit bland and austere for my taste, but then again I like 70s garish green sunburst dials... Longines vs Tudor. Longines completely blows T out of the water in terms of history, technical innovation and back catalogue. For those that care about that. Longines also sell some watches with multiple complications which are unique at their price point. The Triple Calendar Moonphase Chronograph and the Retrograde, both in the Master Collection, for example.
I saw it, I tried it on, I love it! I want it, but don’t need it. It’s really handsome and unique. Feels great on the wrist. Working that bezel is a lot of fun, smooth as silk. If I was starting out and saw this one, I probably would have gotten it.
Thanks for the review. I happen to own the JLC Polaris Date in green, which is imho infinitely better than this Longines .. but that's only because of the incredibly lacquered dial and amazingly beautiful (though a bit small movement). Yet, the simple black Polaris is indeed never three to four time better than the Longines, as the price suggests
Hey Mike, one alternative that I think might've slipped your attention is Baltic Aquascaphe Dual Crown. After seeing Ledend Diver I immediately thought about visual similarity that both watches share. Of course you do get extra 100m WR with Longines and extra power reserve, but at the cost of added thickness... And the cost itselfz of course! Really enjoyed your video!
Love the perspectives, binged a few vids since finding you and I think your content is unique. Keep it up! Will be looking to see this piece in person.
Nice discussion on the design elements and how the use of negative space impacts the look of the watch. A deep dive on different brands traditions and design language would be fascinating.
Is there any chance to get an in depth review about the Baume et Mercier Riviera Baumatic in 39mm? I love your videos and would love to hear your opinion. Even a comment would be enough.
I just found your channel today. Very well spoken and considerate. I really enjoy your videos. As you mentioned the IWC Mark XX, perhaps you could do a video about all the different Mark models - I'd like your take on it! Cheers
thank you. To be fair... my knowledge of the full history of the mark models is not the strongest in the business. That's a whole rabbit hole of details, I haven't gotten around to diving down into 😂
As someone who is a watch collector and enthusiast dive watches never really appealed yet i want one for the collection. This however appeals on so many levels and may just fill the dive watch void currently in the collection. Great review as always!
Thank you for this vid, another great release from Longines. I like it in 39. Classy, dressy yet purpose built. A very unassuming watch to most people. I was considering a Seastrong from Alpina until aware of this. Secondly I'm finding now I prefer subtle and not blocky and chunky divers. Therefore I'm selling my 0L65 Seiko Ocean and considering what to do with the Tudor BB 925. Once again thank you for this vid and comparison. Tschuss, Chris
I have been eyeing this for a while now as an anniversary suggestion to my spouse (she has been asking what watches I am into). Would be a keep for life piece. Everyone says get the Tudor, but this just fits my style a bit more. And I don’t know why haha
I’m a diver. I can’t imagine myself rotating a crown during a dive to time my safety stop!! The dive bezel needs to be outside & easily rotatable, even with gloved fingers!!
Mike, another great analysis. I bought the OG 42mm with date on a Milanese bracelet, and have been wearing it on a leather strap all this week. Fits me well, and when on a Milanese strap I too look at it as a dress watch, but on a leather I sometimes think It's my pilots watch due to the size! One thing that has pee'd me off however is the poor Lume on the dial and hands, absolutely shocking, there's just no excuse. There's a lot to be said for Rolex design, as in do it right, do it once, the fact that they've added numerals made from solid lume and decent lume markers on the dial say's it all. I think this new 39mm on the beads of rice bracelet is killer! I'm not bitter, honest guv 🤣🤣🤣
I love that model, a home run from Longines (or more so a converted try, given your South African origins). Now the relevant question: who in their right mind will buy one of the new Seiko Prospex Marinemaster, with their stated accuracy at -10/+15 spd, over this Longines at around the same price?
Seen this watch at an AD, and I was really impressed with it. If it wasn’t for the fact I was purchasing an omega seamaster 300 diver in white , I’d easily of taken this watch in blue or black with the 39mm beads of rice bracelet. Well worth the money.
Hi, I have the Alpina Seastrong Heritage diver which I got for an absolute steal but even at £1500 retail it's a fine compressor style watch. I have heard it is essentially the same watch as the Longines but badged as Alpina. Whatever, you should check it out.
I agreed with EVERY word of this! I was fine with the size of the 42, but I do think this one is more versatile for an everyday choice, and I’m also really glad Longines makes niche watches like this. My only quibble is cost, which I think is a bit aggressive for what it is, but c’est la vie! The Polaris comparison is definitely on-point.
I have this watch in my rotation with 2 Rolex subs and my beloved Tudor bb 58 blue but this Longines is my dress watch.I think even better looking is the Longines Tuxedo.
"but it's 2023.." Glad i'm not the only one who usually takes the entire month of January before I figure the correct-year thing out! ;-D Love this watch, btw. Hmmm....this, or one of the new slim-Marinemasters??
I love your content. As a new collector, I find it invaluable, erudite and right on target. I also miss the contents of the bookcase. Those that prefer it empty I think are a little bit ridiculous. Do the contents somehow threaten them? Do they feel inadequate? In my case, not a pun but to paraphrase a famous saying, bookcases make the man. Bravo, excellent channel! I love it and keep it up.
Longines is a great watch brand, in its historical recreations and its totally new designs. For example, I own a retrograde moon phase that is hugely niche. Few are made because they are probably expensive to make and there is low demand. But in the shop where I bought one (at 20% discount), one of the family members who ran the shop already owned it. The design seems to have come from a group of friends who kept trying to one-up each other to make the most extravagant design that could be sold. I mean, a retrograde minutes display?! Longines, despite its size and watch output, is full of personality.
Excellent points. Everything about this watch is excellent especially considering the price. I’m a massive Longines fan and I’ve acquired 3 of their watches in the last year but I’m yet to pull the plug on a diver. This one screams buy me but I find these 2 colour ways a bit too bland, hopefully they come out with something a bit more special, like they did with their green Hydro Conquest GMT, then I’ll be all in. How good would this design look with a lacquered or, dare I dream, an enamel dial? Problem is it’d ruin any other watches for me.😂
It is a diver....desk diver and you can time your lunch break with the bezel. Seriously, I saw the JLC first and thr dial was amazing. Spending over $10k on a watch is not likely now tbough. I think if I got this Longines I would only be reminded it is not the JLC. I do like it though. Maybe after I see one in person but my next Longines will likely be a Spirit
If you want the dive watch motif with the moveable outer bezel then the Longines design doesn't cut it. If you want a different type of diver design to time events for cooking or working out that also acts as a dress type of watch then the Longines works. One negative, unless I misunderstood, is you need to pull out the second crown to adjust the inner bezel. The other design cue which I don't like is the hands don't match.
Thank you for another excellent review. Question: I am interested in purchasing a Longines Ultra-Chron but do not have an AD that has the watch on site within a 2 hour drive of my home. This leaves me three options and I am curious what you would recommend and why. 1. I can order directly from the Longines site. 2. I can order from a large jeweler who is an AD. 3. I can go into a local branch of same large jeweler and order it there. Store manager told me they would have it shipped over from a branch that keeps the watch in stock. I get that working with an AD is probably good, but am I guaranteed to get a good watch if it is sent over from another store? Thanks.
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it. Depends. If you're in the EU or UK - Buy it online. You have 14 days to return it if you don't like it. Applies in the UK as well. If you can get an AD to bring it in but not commit until you've tried it, then go for it, but I would never suggest buying a watch outright without right of return if you haven't had it on your wrist. 😀
Great review and comparison to the competition. 39/40 is where the vendors are apparently all headed, rightfully. Sometimes it’s nice to throw on a 42 for a little more presence. That is a very handsome watch. But pricing… maybe a bit optimistic on their part. I think $2500 would have been more appropriate. PS - the empty bookcase - I thought you got robbed. Was hoping your watches were well hidden.
I have the 42mm date, I think I would prefer the 39 but I can’t justify to myself buying the same watch twice. I could try and sell mine at a loss and then buy the new one at its higher price point but the feeling wouldn’t be great.
Zulu time and now legend diver. Longines has been a sleeper for me but now they have my undivided attention; Tudor takes a step back to second position in my mind...
I just don't get an internal bezel on a dive (snorkelling) watch. Surely it's a complication with a much simpler answer: i.e. an external bezel, much more usable with cold wet soft (or gloved) fingers? All very good for the desk divers, I suppose, so rough edges don't ladder their stockings.
@@gori277 I think the compressor system came first because accurately sized gaskets / o-rings weren't sufficiently developed. Principally to do with available synthetic materials. What though that has to do with internal bezels, I'm not sure. I just know that internal bezels are impractical in the water.
@JohnMcKelvie maybe, if you're actually setting your watch in the water (not likely). If I was actually using my bezel to time my dive I'd prefer to set it at the start and not be fearful of knocking an external bezel. All this is quite academic as no one's used watches to time dives for more than 30 years (back when I got my diving cert), these are tributes to heritage, craftsmanship, and design more likely to time boling an egg than dives.
@@gori277 yes, better for eggs. Whilst I use a Shearwater dive computer to supplement / backup my AP rebreather's handset, I do use a bezel dive watch on penetrations into wrecks or sea caves for timing for horizontal distance. There's one in the Poor Knights marine reserve here in NZ which goes in some 50m to a fresh water spring. At depth, whether on trimix or just air diluent, brain-fog due to narcosis is insidious (especially with buoyancy and vision issues in a fresh-salt water mix in complete blackness with torches), so a bezel visually just showing the penetration time is simple and important. Getting to and finding the entrance can be a mission in itself, so the bezel has to be set underwater. 15 mins in with no vertical escape, so 15 mins out, with a separate quick mental calc. en route re. gas reserves in case of bailout. Once I lost contact with a buddy in a wreck due to silt, so I used the bezel to time 10 mins of just waiting in the gloom to see whether the silt thinned and to see which passageway he'd gone down and whether he was coming back, or whether (after a pre-agreed separation time) we'd find our own ways out. Setting a separate timer on a capable dive computer is possible but it's a faff remembering the menu-button sequence, and then you have to remember to turn it off, and not stuff any of the main functions of that computer especially deco. (With 2 computers, we always use the most conservative deco sequence). Remembering and marking time from the dive computer clock can be surprising difficult. The dive watch is just being used for one simple visual task, so that aspect at least is not preying on your mind in what can be a stressful situation. What I'm saying is that the external bezel remains useful because it's deployed with gloved hands under water.
Right now unless a watch trades very close to retail preowned or over. Even if I’m buying with an AD in the UK I won’t buy anything unless it’s 25 - 50% off the rrp. Either as vouchers / gifts or money off. The watch market is seriously struggling whilst brands are increasing prices. If you are in the UK be patient and you will get the watches you want at the correct price outside of a few very hyped ones.
I louped into Black Bays and Spirits. Less dust and better dial, markers and hands finishing in the Longines watches. The Ceramic BB was better than other Tudors.
I will try to do my best since my first language is French. With all due respect, why should I even consider subscibing to this channel when I see what is on your wrist, knowing also some of what is in your watchbox. Many watch enthousiasts like myself are reasonably well educated people working in low middle class fields of work, like public service for exemple. Even if we are in this hobby for almost 10 years now, it is impossible for us to bye what you are flexing. My hobby could be playing piano and I wouldn't expect making money out of it. I'm glad that yours at the moment is creating content on this topic. I just say do it for yourself and stop asking from us to subscribe. Don't worry, I won't miss any of your content if it interest me, I know where to find your channel. Finally, I find your angle when diving into the subject of watches to be very interesting most of the time. Thank you.
Je crois que tu tes trompes sur Mike… je continue en Anglais qui aussi n’est pas ma première langue mais plus facile que mon très rouillé français: I’ve been watching this channel for quite a few months and, even though I’ve had some difference in opinions, I’ve never noticed any “flex” or even pandering for clicks. From my impression Mike has obviously had/has quite a successful career in the corporate area and that actually allows him to offer quite an interesting perspective from the business side of things, opinions that I’ve found quite independent, much more than other channels that are obviously more compromised as they’re interested parties in the business. To me, it looks like he doesn’t really need the channel to make his earnings and it seems truly more an outlet to express himself and share his views as a watch enthusiast, there’s not an obvious line of reviews or videos of mostly popular watches in order to suit the algorithms, some of the videos are actually quite corporate/ marketing nerdy and not the obvious choice if you’re looking to grow your channel massively. Just my impressions as someone who’s only been following for 4-6 months and probably had the same initial impression as you but gave the channel the benefit of doubt, rummaged through past videos and changed my mind. All the best to you monsieur.
It’s the Legend Diver Longines should have released in the first place, although in 2024 it really should have an on-the-fly adjustment (and I’m one of those who can’t cope without a date function 😅)…but the SRP has doubled in a very short space of time compared to earlier releases now hitting £3,150 for this model. Ouch. Longines was alot cheaper than Tudor only a few years ago. 😢 Also I feel Longines overall design aesthetic is a little too ‘shiny’, a bit too Miami bar stool for me.
Amazing watch but the price is off. I've been a fan since the early 2010s. This watch should be sub £2k. It's a simple classic design. It just doesn't feel like a £3k purchase - youre entering Breitling and Tudor territory - and it costs £1k more than the 42/36mm versions for no justifiable reason. . I'd feel short changed sadly.
My feeling about this watch is that I don't really get it. Skin drivers in general, in a way that you alluded to in the video - not a dress watch, not a dive watch, just... A little odd to me. Happy for those who enjoy them!
Lots of excellent reissues. But the most excellent ones are authentic to the original in terms of size and even prints on the dial. I kind of like seiko's current approach with the 62mas. For modern reinterpretations, it is mass production. For authentic reissues, limited editions. Although, seiko should cut down on the limited editions..Otherwise, it makes sense..
I really appreciate Longines as a brand, but the compressor style divers never did it for me. It’s special enough to be interesting in a sea of Submariner derivatives, but it tries to be a jack of all trades, by being a dressy tool watch. Omega did a far better job on making a dive watch dressy, that’s what I’d choose. In fact I did.
Completely different styles. The Omega today looks like any other diver. So sadly it looks derivative even though it was amongst the OGs of this design, the Longines looks more unique and heritage classic. As long as you enjoy your watch who cares I guess
Fair question. As I state completely explicitly in the video - I reviewed it based on my experience wearing it at the ad. It's not a week on the wrist, but I feel I have enough of a feel for it to make a qualified statement. Any video that is in the "Reviews" playlist is a watch I have had in physically in my own hand at an AD, through a friend or in some other context. Some day, perhaps brands will see fit to send me watches as well. I have no doubt that many would love some more interesting b-roll than what I usually dish up with. Until then, I'll make do with stock b-roll. Cheers 😃
Hmm... Personally, I think this is just a Longines Modus Operandi back catalogue yawn. It has to stack up against watches like; • Atelier Wen Perception • Epos 3439 North Star Rose Gold • Tudor Fastrider Black Shield 42000CN • Ball Hydrocarbon AeroGMT II • Christopher Ward C1 Bel Canto Given the choice, this Longines is far from competitive against the aforementioned.
None of the brands you mention has an ounce of recognition and prestige than Longines has. Does anybody beyond watch geeks has ever heard of Ball or CW. How about Longines? Sorry but prestige goes well beyond "specs".
@camilo862 OH... A Longines fan boy gets triggered. Relax. It's just my opinion. You are entitled to yours as much as I am to mine. We'll not meet in the middle, so might as well save the trouble of wasting more time defending our positions. Enjoy your Longines.
@@RamPatten Do you buy watches to lose as much money as possible? Your banker must be proud, you make for a great client to help make others rich ;) Have a great weekend!
