Compared with some traditional watch functions, the almanac display is a relatively new feature that will automatically distinguish between big and small months. Each year, you only need to adjust the date from February to March. It is a kind of Watch complications. Compared with the perpetual calendar, the biggest difference is that it does not use a program wheel with a four-year cycle, so it cannot identify the leap year and the ordinary year, and it cannot identify the days in February. It needs to be manually adjusted. Compared with the price of perpetual calendar, which is between two and three hundred thousand, the annual calendar watch is cheaper, and the watch is only adjusted on March 1 every year, which is a very cost-effective function.
In 2018, Longines was equipped with an annual calendar function for the first time in a mechanical watch. As a rare complication after the perpetual calendar, the annual calendar can be regarded as the ‘exclusive forbidden area’ controlled by big names. Before this watch came out, the cheapest almanac watch in my mind cost about 56 thousand yuan, and Longines’s annual watch brought the price to 20,000 yuan. This price is incredible, after all, the junior calendar of the Longines masters before was priced at around 15,000, while the new annual calendar only added 2,500 yuan.
After the release of this watch by Basel Longines, some watch friends in the Watch House Forum were very interested in this masterpiece annual calendar watch. We also got one of them (model: L2.910.4.78.3) at the first time. From the appearance, movement test and hands-on effect, let’s take a look at what’s special about the new famous master calendar watch.
Watch appearance
In appearance, this annual calendar watch is basically no different from the three-pin calendar model of the famous master series. 40 mm case diameter, polished and rounded case, silver dial, black hour markers, blue three-pointer hands. The new annual calendar display is placed at three o’clock on the dial, which is extremely simple.
The crown is pulled out into two steps, one to adjust the date and month, and the second to adjust the time, which is very easy to use.
There are many options for the strap, this is the most expensive one with a stainless steel bracelet. Black, brown and blue alligator straps are also available. All straps are fitted with a folding safety clasp.
The Longines watch we got was very new, and from the side we can see that the case is very polished. Although it is equipped with an almanac function, the watch is still slim, and the official thickness data is not given. I measured the overall thickness with a tape measure at about 7 mm.
Let’s look at the dial, which is basically the same as the junior dial design of the famous master series. It uses a silver dial with barley grain pattern, black Arabic numerals and black transfer minute scales on the periphery. Blue stainless steel hands have always been one of the characteristics of the famous craftsman series, which has also been continued on this watch. Above the dial at 6 o’clock, ‘ANNUAL CALENDAR’ is written in English, which shows that it is different from the three-handed watch of a famous master craftsman.
Two display windows side by side at 3 o’clock, one for the month and one for the date, simply. If it were n’t for 6 o’clock with the words ‘ANNUAL CALENDAR’, I would have thought that this would be a date display.
Movement test
The watch is equipped with a Longines L897.2 self-winding mechanical movement. This movement was developed based on ETA 2892 and added an annual calendar module. The movement provides the basic polish, after all, its price range has to be considered. It can automatically and correctly display the calendars and calendars of all months except the end of February. It only needs to be transferred once a year at the end of the month, and the rest of the days rely on the small parts of the movement that are comparable to computers to run by themselves. At the same time, the movement uses a Nivachoc shock absorber to provide 64 hours of kinetic energy reserve.
For this watch we got, we also used professional instruments to perform the same four-way accuracy test as the official under full temperature at room temperature (20 ~ 27 ° C). We found that the Longines L897.2 movement uses a wobble frequency of 25,200 times per hour. This wobble frequency can not only ensure that the watch is relatively accurate, but also ensure that the movement can provide a longer power reserve. After the test, all the data are in accordance with the movement factory standards.
Get started
In order to give you a reference, we select a man with the finest wrist in the editorial department to wear this watch for shooting. You can see the effect on the upper wrist.
The wrist circumference of the editor is 15cm. There is no sense of weight when wearing this watch. The watch can be easily incorporated into the cuff.
Summary: Cost-effectiveness is the most worthwhile reason to buy this watch. The price of 17,500 RMB can buy a watch with an annual calendar function, which was simply impossible before. In addition, the design of the famous watch series itself is good at this price, and it is considered to be a day watch, which is why many people choose the first watch series.