Words: Gentleman's Journal
Time and racing are intrinsically linked. For all of those close cut finishes, world records and personal bests, there’s a timekeeper calculating who’s etched into the history books and who painfully misses out. Nobody remembers second, even if they fall short by less than a tick. For over a century Longines has associated itself, partnered and supported equestrian events around the globe, ensuring that precision is the priority when it comes to the running on and off the field.
The Swiss watchmakers can chart its unwavering equine affair back to 1878, the year being the first time a jockey and mount appeared on a chronograph, that very timepiece becoming the Winged hourglass’ ambassador for jockeys and horse enthusiasts. Offering performance timekeeping to the nearest second, in 1886, most sports judges in New York began using it as their weapon of choice to measure the minutes and seconds.
Longines initially involved itself heavily in show jumping as opposed to flat racing, the Saint-Imier brand’s passion for elegance proving a natural fit. From 1912 – during the company’s inaugural partnership at a Lisbon show jumping competition – the winged hourglass brand began to establish itself as the official timekeeper for a multitude of equestrian events. The mix of form and function proving a pull for the prestige sporting world.
That same year, Longines inaugurated its first electromechanical timing system at the Fête Fédérale de Gymnastique in Basel. Based on a “broken wire” system, revolutionary for the era, it eliminated a sizeable chance of imprecision by removing the manual element of activation. The decades that followed saw the watchmakers further intwine with the horse racing world, both as a timekeeper and a sponsor.
Longines shunts the idea of simply being a named partner at sporting events. It’s forever involved itself in the timing of the meetings it supports, flexing its horological and mechanical muscles — linking the quality of its everyday watches to the performance and technicality of sports timing. After 1912 there was a insatiable appetite from the Swiss stalwarts to continue closing the gap and push out any notions of imprecision.
In 1939 Longines introduced a 24 lines calibre, specially adapted for sports timing. A decade later, the Chronocamera made its bow, the system married a photographic device with the time-keeping instruments. It was capable of recording to a tenth of a second and snapping frames for a photo finish, almost as we know it today. The Chronocamera became standard in a range of sports and disciplines away from horse racing, becoming certified in 1950 in Paris by the International Automobile Federation.
In 1954, Longines developed its first quartz clock – setting a raft of new and impressive precision records at the Neuchâtel Observatory, the body assessing and rating Swiss timepiece movements for accuracy. From this, the Longines Chronocinégines timing instrument was created featuring a 16mm camera, coupled with a quartz-clock-controlled timer. This built on the innovations of the Chronocamera, providing judges with a film strip comprising a set of frames to 1/100th of a second enabling them to follow the motion of athletes (and horses) nearing and crossing the finish line.
Stepping this up once more, just two years later Longines produced a permanent recording process of the finish line. The Contifort printed on a continuously unwinding and immediately developed film strip the position in time and space of contestants on the finish line, timed, of course, with the quartz clock advancements of the years before.
These advancements in timing and the inherent elegance that surrounds the esteemed watchmakers, as seen it become a natural fit for the world’s most prestige equestrian events. Today that includes partnerships with, the Prix de Diane Longines, the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the Dubai World Cup, the Longines Singapore Gold Cup, the Triple Crown and the Kentucky Derby, amongst many others. In addition, in 2007, it became the providers of race times at the revered Ascot racecourse and then in 2013 renewed the agreement whereby it became the official partners of the course, including the globally recognised Royal Ascot meeting.
That same year, Longines inked an agreement with the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA), making it the Official Partner and Official Watch of the Federation. The watchmakers thus awards the respective titles of Longines World’s Best Jockey, Longines World’s Best Racehorse, Longines World’s Best Horse Race and the annual Longines and IFHA International Award of Merit, honouring the career of an important figure in the world of flat racing. This, cementing Longines position at the apex of the equine, racing and horological worlds.
(All images courtesy of Longines)
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