Vintage Longines Czech Aviator Chronometre Majetek Vojensk Spravy – 1938 WWII, Military Tartarugone, Serviced

Words like rare, unique, and collectible get thrown around quite a bit in certain circles. For years now, through their use in lazy or dishonest marketing, sellers and collectors have been perpetuating questionable ideas about the historical significance, rarity, and value of all manner of items. The words in question have, therefore, lost a lot of their weight – and that’s a problem. When something truly once-in-a-lifetime does come along, those same words tend to fall short of successfully communicating its importance. That’s precisely why, as far as our latest offering is concerned, we’re going to be focusing on some easily-verifiable facts and supplementing them with a brief overview of the specific example on offer. The Longines Tartarugone (Turtle) is a chronometer wristwatch produced for Czech aviators before, during, and after the Second World War. It is also known as the “Majetek” or more precisely “Majetek Vojensk Spravy”, which translates into “Property of the Military Administration”. This refers to the model being produced by three different brands – Longines, Lemania and Eterna exclusively for the Czech Air Force. The other name – the Tartarugone (Turtle) is its emblematic nickname that the model got throughout the years due to its substantial case. Some examples of the Tartarugone come with serial numbers dating them back to the early 1920s, but that’s most often because the cases themselves were built in the 1920s, while the rest of the watch was made and assembled much later, in the 1930s. According to information kindly provided to our team by Longines, the example on offer here dates back to 1938 and was invoiced to the Wolfgang Guth company – Longines’s agent for Prague at the time. The watch is in extraordinary condition both cosmetically and mechanically. The calibre 15.94 was just serviced by our master watchmaker and is ticking steadily at less than ±9 seconds per day across all four positions. The barrel bridge of the movement appears to have been replaced at some point, which is to be expected given the age of the watch. The case shows next to no signs of wear, and the preserved black military dial has acquired that longed-for peanut butter patina. If there is a single imperfection that ought to be called out, it would have to be the crack in the enamel at 5 o’clock, which remains insignificant in light of the overall condition. Curiously enough, the Turtle features a rotating bezel… some 30 years before it is supposed to have been invented for the French Nageurs de Combat. James Bond may have led us to believe that using one to time a shallow dive is the coolest thing ever, but it isn’t. Czechian national heroes used these rotating bezels so they wouldn’t run out of fuel mid-air-fight – now that is the epitome of cool.

The watch is covered by 6 months of limited warranty, starting on the date of purchase.