
Wristwatches · Wristwatch
Longines Sterling Silver Cal. 11.84N, 1926
- Maker / attribution
- Longines (maker)
- Date
- 1926
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Switzerland
- Object type
- Wristwatch
- Materials / technique
- silver
- Stock no.
- LNGS1184N
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Craft & Tailored (LNGS1184N)
- Catalogue title (original)
- 1926 Longines Sterling Silver Cal. 11.84N (English)
View the source record (dealer listing) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by Craft & Tailored (dealer), Los Angeles (stock number LNGS1184N), this is a wristwatch by Longines, made in Switzerland, dated 1926. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Wristwatches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: silver. The record is illustrated with 6 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Dealer description — Craft & Tailored
For decades Longines created some of the most beautiful and versatile watches in the world. Year after year pumping out beauty and reliability, seemingly in competition with only themselves. This railroad dial example from 1926 is a fantastic example of this trend with its gorgeous blend of aggressive lines and curved steel. SPECS Stock # LNGS1184N Brand Longines Style N/A Model N/A Serial 49XXXXX Size Men's/ Unisex Material Sterling Silver Dial Silver "Aged" Millimeters 28 Bracelet Steel Ladder-Style Bracelet CASE & BRACELET The 28-millimeter sterling silver case gracefully shows its near-century of life. The lugs are a beautifully curved shape with just the right amount of length for the size of the case. The watch also features a hunter case back giving a view of the fantastic, manually wound Longines Cal. 11.84n movement. DIAL & HANDS This Longines shows off a gorgeous railroad-style dial with thick, radium, Arabic numerals. The hour markers sit on top of a beautifully aged midsection of the dial, having turned a fantastic multi-shade of cream and brown. This surrounds a grey inner dial and is surrounded in turn by a black and white outer minute track. The dial also shows off a small sub-seconds counter at 6 o'clock and beautifully aged radium cathedral hands. The minute hand is missing most of the lume in its window nearest the hand stack. ACCESSORIES None. The watch is keeping time, previous service history is unknown.
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
The wristwatch overtook the pocket watch. Military use in the First World War, aviation, water-resistant cases (1926), automatic winding (1923–31), rectangular Art Deco designs and early chronographs and calendars defined the period.
Read the period in the timelineMore wristwatches from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
Atlas type guide
Wristwatches
Bracelet watches were worn by women from the early nineteenth century — Breguet made one for Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, in 1810–12 — but the wristwatch only became a man's instrument with military use and aviation in the early twentieth century. Between the World Wars it overtook the pocket watch; the 1920s and 1930s brought rectangular Art Deco cases, water-resistant cases and the first automatic winding systems.
After 1945 the wristwatch became a carrier of identity — dress watches, sports and dive watches, chronographs, calendars — produced by Swiss, American, Japanese, German, Soviet and Chinese industries. The quartz revolution after 1969 and the mechanical renaissance since the 1990s, including the rise of independent watchmakers, complete the story.
What to look for
- The reference number (between the lugs or inside the case back) and serial number, the starting point for dating.
- The calibre: its maker and number are often stamped under the dial or on the bridge.
- Originality of dial, hands and crown — refinished ('redial') dials are common.
- Case material marks: 18K/750, 14K/585, stainless steel, gold-filled, plated.
Dating clues
- Wire-lug cases: before c. 1925.
- Water-resistant screw-down cases: from 1926.
- Quartz movements: from 1969; sapphire crystals widespread after c. 1980.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
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