Longines Museum

The Longines watch brand has been in St-Imier since it was founded by Auguste Agassiz in 1832. Production was by home-workers at first but a factory was built in 1867 and enlarged many times afterwards. In an early example of brand management, the name was trademarked in 1880 – ‘longines’ in the local dialect is the ‘long meadow’ where the factory was built. The logo of an hourglass with wings was created in 1889. The museum in the factory was refurbished in 2012 and presents modern and elegant displays of watches, models, documents, design drawings, graphic art, films and photographs. The company became known for the precision of its pocket watches and wristwatches. Part of the exhibition shows how they were used by aviators and adventurers who needed accuracy in difficult conditions. Another part is about the importance of time measurement in sports.