TIME’S ARROW

Longines’ winged hourglass logo hasn’t graced just aviation pieces: as well as the Army Air Corps and the International Aeronautical Federation, the French Navy is among those to have benefited from the precision instruments of a manufacture founded by Auguste Agassiz in 1832.

It is not surprising that organisations for whom precision timekeeping is a matter of life and death have enlisted Longines’ services: the brand that invented, among other horological masterstrokes, crown-wound pocket-watches and the flyback function is as renowned for innovation as it is for the longevity of their eternally elegant, exquisitely made wares.

For Matthias Breschan, who became Chief Executive of the Saint-Imier firm last year, having been at the helm of Rado for nine years and Hamilton for seven, advancement of what is deemed possible isn’t merely admirable, it’s a prerequisite for