Sector dial watches are some of the most elegant in all of the vintage watch scene — dating from the 1930s but also found on timepieces from the 1940s, the design entails a dial bisected twice with two perpendicular lines, one vertical from 12 to 6 o’clock, and the other horizontal from 9 o’clock to 3 o’clock. This division of the dial into 3-hour “sectors” is often accompanied by thin, blued steel hands (which were in vogue at the time), making for an extremely elegant, understated look. Difficult to find in top condition, original sector dial watches often command a premium over models from the same time period with more pedestrian dials, and timepieces from Longines are among the best examples.
Today, following on the heels of several recent nouveau-vintage designs, Longines has released the Heritage Classic, a modern sector dial watch celebrating those of the 1930s. The watch features a dial divided into sectors with a silver opaline inner disk and sub-seconds counter — Arabic numerals feature at the cardinal positions above a satin-finished silver disk. Powered by the new and exclusive-to-Longines cal. L893.5 (based on the ETA A31.501) featuring a silicon balance spring, this automatic movement is meant strictly for the Heritage line and doesn’t feature a date wheel, but does have an impressive 64-hour power reserve.
Best of all, the stainless steel case measure 38.5mm — though larger than a vintage original, this is the perfect size for a contemporary imagining of the elegant sector dial. The Heritage Classic ships on the customer’s choice of blue or matte black leather strap with beige overstitching and a denim-effect leather NATO strap in anthracite or blue, as well a strap-changing tool. Pricing is set at $2,150.
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