It’s crazy to think that the Longines Spirit collection, which is one of the most popular pilot’s watch collections around, is only five years old. It first debuted in 2020, which was perhaps fortuitous timing because as the world shut down, the watch industry boomed as collectors had more time to study their favourite brands and stay up to date with the latest releases. It catapulted the Spirit to success in short order and Longines haven’t let the iron go cold ever since. Five years later we have the first major redesign of the core collection models with the new 2025 Longines Spirit Pilot and Longines Spirit Pilot Flyback.
Longines Spirit Pilot
The big news here is that the Longines Spirit Pilot has had its case redesigned and reduced in size so it now measures 39mm in diameter instead of 40mm/42mm. The smaller dimensions improve the ergonomics of the watch, making it more wearable for a wider range of wrist sizes while also playing into the popularity of retro sizes. However, Longines do have to carry out a delicate balancing act because pilot’s watches are one of the tool watch archetypes that have historically been on the larger side of the spectrum, as the wider display allows them to be more legible.
Thankfully, while Longines have reduced the size, they’ve also improved the clarity of the dial at the same time in order to enhance the overall readability (also 1mm isn’t exactly back breaking anyway). The biggest update to the dial is the removal of the five-star symbol that used to be placed below the central hand stack, above 6 o’clock. It was previously one of the defining symbols of the Spirit range so seeing it go is a little melancholic, but at the same time, the display now looks substantially cleaner.
Similarly, the peripheral minute track has been stripped of its Arabic numerals at the 5-minute intervals. It’s now a clean ring that’s almost but not quite a railway track style scale. The small bar markers don’t quite reach the whole way across from the outer ring to the inner ring of the hour scale. The Arabic hour markers remain oversize and lumed for that classic aviation look, contrasting with the black dial. Interestingly this redesign is only available in black, unlike the 2020 original series that was also available in silver and blue. The date window at 6 o’clock is also gone.
Powering the Longines Spirit Pilot is the L888.4 automatic movement with 72-hour power reserve. It’s a COSC chronometer movement and helps to justify the £2,150 price. That’s for the rubber strap edition, it’s also available on leather for £2,250 and steel bracelet for £2,450. The standard Longines Spirit is still available at £2,150 – £2,350, so at worst you’re paying £100 extra for these updates.
Price and Specs:
Longines Spirit Pilot Flyback
The Longines Spirit Pilot Flyback is the chronograph interpretation of the design. It’s very slightly larger than its three-hand counterpart at a diameter of 39.5mm, but still slimmer than the original series that was 42mm. The flyback chronograph has an important place in Longines heritage as they were the first brand to patent a flyback design back in 1935. A flyback, if you’re unfamiliar, is a style of chronograph that you can stop, reset and restart with a single pusher press while it’s running.
This is a useful feature for pilots because it makes the watch easier to use during visual navigation. Essentially, a set of navigation instructions might be along the lines of, ‘fly at a bearing of XYZ for five minutes and when you see the lighthouse on the right, turn left (or would that be west, I’m not an expert in navigation) and fly for ten minutes to find the airfield.’ Timing those intervals accurately is very important so the faster that you can swap from the first leg of the journey to the second, the less likely you are to get lost. Or crash for that matter as you faff around with your watch.
Playing into that, the bezel has also been redesigned. Instead of an elapsed time bezel, it’s now a countdown bezel. They serve the same purpose but instead positioning the triangle marker on the current time and noting when the time reaches your chosen interval, you choose the interval you want to time and then you know it has elapsed when it reaches the triangle marker. Different solutions to the same problem.
Beyond that it features the same suite of dial updates as the Longines Spirit Pilot. No more five-star symbol, stripped back timing markers and classy black, white and gold colour scheme. One thing to note though is that the compressed dimensions do make themselves felt in the way the subdials overlap the hour numerals around the edge, making for a slightly more crowded display. That’s forgivable given the dramatically increased wearability of the watch with the thickness reduced from 17mm to just 13.4mm.
Inside is the manual L792 calibre with 68-hour power reserve. It’s also a COSC certified chronometer, ensuring a high level of accuracy and reliability across multiple positions and environmental conditions. It contributes to the £4,350 price on leather strap or £4,450 on steel bracelet, which again are functionally identical to the original collection give or take £100. These 2025 updates to the Spirit collection feel like a maturation of the design and concepts at the heart of the series.
Price and Specs:
More details at Longines.
