# Longines Cal. 490



## peakxv (May 30, 2010)

Thoughts/opinions on Longines Cal. 490


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## peakxv (May 30, 2010)

I asked my watchmaker about the Longines 490 and he told me it was inferior to any omega caliber from the 50-60s. is this true?


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## ulackfocus (Oct 17, 2008)

peakxv said:


> I asked my watchmaker about the Longines 490 and he told me it was inferior to any omega caliber from the 50-60s. is this true?


While there may be some personal bias in his statement, there's probably a good deal of truth to that because the 490 was not an in-house caliber. Longines own movements were a nudge better than Omega's in the 40's and 50's, but I'd say the gap was almost closed by the 60's. The problem is I don't have any record of what the 490 is based on, and unless I'm searching incorrectly the Ranfft archives don't show anything on it either. :think::-s Most of the movements Longines used that they didn't manufacture were rebadged Record calibers so the safe guess is that the 490 is another.

Here's a picture of a 490 in case it rings any bells for anyone:


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## peakxv (May 30, 2010)

ulackfocus said:


> While there may be some personal bias in his statement, there's probably a good deal of truth to that because the 490 was not an in-house caliber. Longines own movements were a nudge better than Omega's in the 40's and 50's, but I'd say the gap was almost closed by the 60's. The problem is I don't have any record of what the 490 is based on, and unless I'm searching incorrectly the Ranfft archives don't show anything on it either. :think::-s Most of the movements Longines used that they didn't manufacture were rebadged Record calibers so the safe guess is that the 490 is another.
> 
> Here's a picture of a 490 in case it rings any bells for anyone:


 the oddness of this caliber might make it attractive to collectors then?


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## Barnaby (Jul 21, 2008)

peakxv said:


> the oddness of this caliber might make it attractive to collectors then?


I wouldn't think so...the inhouse calibres are more what collectors are after.

The 490 was used in things like the 'Flagship' series and a few other models. It's a nice and reliable movement from all accounts, but not something that is particularly collectible as far as I know. Good examples sometimes go on the 'Bay for next to nothing. I toyed with the idea of getting one last year, actually, but bought something else.

Here's one for sale for a wildly optimistic price. I've seen them go for a quarter of that, by the way:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Beautif...istwatches&hash=item3caf08a6db#ht_1615wt_1111


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## ulackfocus (Oct 17, 2008)

Barnaby said:


> I wouldn't think so...the inhouse calibres are more what collectors are after.


Yep, the above picture is from a legitimate NOS Flagship that I passed on simply because the 490 really doesn't interest me. Now, a 30L NOS version would be a different story.



Barnaby said:


> The 490 was used in things like the 'Flagship' series and a few other models.


The later versions of the Flagship were bastardizations of the line IMO. :-| The first manual wind Flagship had the 30L and the first automatic had the 34x series - two worthy movements of the name on the dial. The mid to late 60's saw the 490 manual and 380 autos installed in Flagships and cheapened the series immensely. <|


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## Barnaby (Jul 21, 2008)

ulackfocus said:


> The later versions of the Flagship were bastardizations of the line IMO. :-| The first manual wind Flagship had the 30L and the first automatic had the 34x series - two worthy movements of the name on the dial. The mid to late 60's saw the 490 manual and 380 autos installed in Flagships and cheapened the series immensely. <|


I agree with this completely. The 30L is a really interesting movement, but the later Flagships are just lacking something, like so many other more modern Longines watches. When did they abandon their own movements in general? The 13ZN is one that springs immediately to my mind...but I'm a chronograph lover.


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## ulackfocus (Oct 17, 2008)

Barnaby said:


> I agree with this completely. The 30L is a really interesting movement, but the later Flagships are just lacking something, like so many other more modern Longines watches. When did they abandon their own movements in general? The 13ZN is one that springs immediately to my mind...but I'm a chronograph lover.


Somewhere in the very late 70's or early 80's is when they shifted to mostly quartz and dropped production of mechanical in-house calibers.

The 30CH was their last in-house chronograph and that had disappeared by the 60's in favor of the 330/332 (renamed Valjoux 72) .


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## peakxv (May 30, 2010)

ulackfocus said:


> Somewhere in the very late 70's or early 80's is when they shifted to mostly quartz and dropped production of mechanical in-house calibers.
> 
> The 30CH was their last in-house chronograph and that had disappeared by the 60's in favor of the 330/332 (renamed Valjoux 72) .


 Thanx for info.


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## Barnaby (Jul 21, 2008)

peakxv said:


> Thanx for info.


+1. :-! You can always rely on 'ulackfocus'. Wait...that sounds weird if I say it out loud.

You know what I mean, though.


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## ulackfocus (Oct 17, 2008)

A buddy tipped me off to a thread on TZ where the 490 happened to pop up in discussions about the Flagship line. I'm waiting for confirmation from David that the following picture is the original movement instead of another derivative, but Tony C. posted this picture and I rotated it for comparison:










It's the Election 875, which is identical to the Longines 490:


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