Longines The fantastic cavalcade

In 1821, Nicolas-Mathieu Rieussec gave an official demonstration of the progress achieved by the first chronograph on the Champ de Mars, where horse competitions destined for a bright future had been held since an imperial edict. Nevertheless, the inventor of the “counter of the distance run” had little inkling that he had just created an indissoluble link between the watchmaking art and equestrian sport. A decade later, in 1832, in a Jura valley, the Maison Longines came into being. The brand’s passion for sport soon turned its timepieces, with the winged hourglass trademark, into precision instruments indispensable to athletes. For over a century, innumerable major world competitions have had recourse to timekeeping systems developed by Longines.

Mademoiselle Diane by Longines

Its interest in equestrian sport, illustrated by numerous commitments throughout the international horse event season, spread in 2011 to official trials organized in France and, more particularly, to the two prestigious races held at the Chantilly hippodrome for the Diane Longines Prize. The event was held for the first time on June 12th last under the aegis of the Swiss brand. While the jockeys and their mounts went head to head over the traditional 2.1 km track, the spectators also looked forward to the award of the “Mademoiselle Diane par Longines” Prize for the most elegant female spectator of the event. Longines and Aishwarya Rai, one of its most graceful ambassadresses, had invited the cream of the equestrian world to a gala dinner in the sumptuous rooms of the Chantilly château.

The Longines equestrian year

So now French equestrian sport beats more than ever to the rhythm of Longines and all the trials held on the racetracks of Chantilly, Deauville and Longchamp benefit from its expertise in sports timekeeping. Moreover the Longines equestrian year covers every latitude and embraces every season. The starting signal is given in March by the Dubai World Cup, followed in May by the Kentucky Derby, in the middle of the American spring. Longines then hops back across the Atlantic in June for the Diane Prize, which is now associated with the Longines name, before crossing the Channel for Royal Ascot and returning to the continent in September for the Longines Grosser Preis von Baden in Germany. The brand also provides the timekeeping for the Qatar Arc de Triomphe Prize which is run on the Longchamp hippodrome in October before heading to the Eternal City for the Grand Prix Longines Lydia Tesio, organized on the Capannelle racetrack. Lastly the Swiss watchmaker’s equestrian year winds up in Melbourne with the Longines Mackinnon Stakes and the Longines Singapore Gold Cup in November. With more than eight decades of experience in the service of equestrian sport, Longines has today become a major player in international equestrian events.