Thoughts on this dial layout?

I felt the same about the circular indices. Longines said we are going to put every shape on the dia. They could have just stuck with the rectangle or rather use the triangle at 6 and 9 instead of the circular indices. Looks very odd like they ran out of indices in their stock.

Also, Longines design language is to screw up one thing when they get everything else right.

Totally agree. I think they do it intentionally to push certain people into buying an omega lol.

I feel that if you asked some AI machine to design the perfect watch…. This would be it. Circular indices, baton indices, triangle at 12, at 6 and 9, date at 3, gmt, rotating bezel….

Am I missing any buzz words or search terms?

A young Michelangelo created the Pieta at the tender age of 24. It was so good that no one believed he was the artist. In order to silence the critics, he snuck in and defaced the statue with the renaissance equivalent of graffiti.

I feel like someone at Longines did the same thing to this dial.

So... Like the BB design with a triangle at 12, batons at 3-6-9, circles for the rest, and squares for the hands? Every shape on the dial, immature design language.😜

The best part about this Longines is the bezel insert. Oh wait, that's because they just copied the Omega SMP font. 😂

I can't get over the circle indices. All batons plus the triangle at 12 would have been perfect. What were they thinking...?

At the cost of doubling one's budget 😂

I'm waiting for the 39mm Legend Diver and the spec sheet looks almost perfect. Hopefully, they missout their one screw-up on that model.

YUP!! I noticed that after I got mine last year, just after the update. I ended up trading it for a TAG F1 (which isn’t much better, but always been a grail of mine) and bought a Mido ocean star, which was (in my opinion) built better than the Longines… and just as accurate… and had a way better bracelet, and better case finishing, and bezel/insert/action…. And dial now that I think of it….

Should have matched the date window…now I can’t unsee the lack of symmetry like the last watch

It's one thing to share case manufacturers or internal parts and movements within the Swatch group, but flat-out giving away the Omega SMP design language to a Longines watch with a completely different aesthetic is a confusing move for me.

It's like Rolex and Tudor sharing identical cases and inserts, but with two brands that have never been related to one another historically.

Tbh the BB design is quite well done even if they use all the shapes. Especially the symmetry is perfect. The indices are placed on the inner side of the minute track printing without any interference or cutting out the printing.

With this Longines, the circular indices are squeezed between the minute track plus the date at 3 making it look more odd. If they placed the date at 6 like they are doing with all their new models, then the circular indices at 9 and 3 would have looked more symmetrical or pleasant. This time I wish they actually followed ISO 6425 and kept all the indices and squeezed the date somewhere.

Weird. That's a minor misstep for Longines. Why did they want to look cool and different?

To each their own. However, as others have pointed out, it's not only this Longines that has all the same shapes as this one plus a date window at 3 (biggest brand in the world loves to do this/ though that may be another argument for not getting the Submariner with the date).

At least it isn't a California dial!

It is a bit of a mess...no stars, that's something at least.

But yeah, replace the date window and 12-triangle with a dot, lose the lozenge on the hour hand and it's quite a good face again!

I normally like Longines but I don't like that at all.

I like the watch, and the dial looks good, but those markers ruin the look a little bit. I get it why they made it that way, but it would look better with the normal markers instead of the circle markers on the 6 and 9.

You're right, and here's my weird story to prove it: when I saw a picture of the new GMT on Instagram, I initially thought those weren't round markers but rather those white dots that lead to a storefront when you click on them... 🤦😅

I was initially impressed when I saw these. They had an immediate appeal to them. But 10 seconds later my eyes saw the circular indices and the hour hand, and I thought, "Oh no! Why did they copy Tudor?" It's everything I can't stand about the Black Bay, in another otherwise wonderful watch.

-- Too many different shapes that don't convey additional information and aren't part of a coherent design.

-- Ugly hour hand.

I don’t really know what to think about the HC. I’ve got the older style 39mm in black. The symmetry never bothers me when I’m wearing the watch (in fact I think the watch is quite beautiful) but when I see it photos I see what people mean. But every time I wear it I would never sell it 😂

Square on the hour hand, lollipop second hand, circles at 6 and 9. No real flow to the dial design.

What’s going on here is very simple…they design team got lazy in designing a dive watch/ gmt. Meanwhile somewhere between the boardroom and design shop the conversation went something like this

-Ceo of marketing “hey that looks too much like a Rolex submariner / gmt II, we don’t do homage watches here, got it?!” “ otherwise a great looking watch, great work”

-Designer: “ ok I’ll change the our markers right away” “Hey team they loved , but one small change let’s switch up the hour markers… opposite lay out please” “oh and that Mercedes hand, well why don’t we just do a semi quasi snowflake thingy “ and voila!!

That bezel is straight off of a submariner and 24 hour markers are hardly visible.

So what is it?

It’s different that’s for sure

I’m not a fan of date windows that interrupt a 3-6-9 pattern. I think date windows work best with a 12 (-1) numeral pattern or even numerals with dots or batons as the odd (-1) hour markers.

It’s like an Omega and a Tudor had a strange baby. The PO 58 and a 1/2.

To be fair, it’s not really like a R/Submariner.

Something strange is definitely going on… not sure what but my initial thoughts lead me to see a mélange between submariner and GMT/Tudor .

Please have a look, as It possesses a dive watch rotating bezel similar to a Sub and not a Gmt🤯. Then note where the circle hour markers normally reside they have now been replaced by a rectangular hour markers and visa versa. Only two circle hour markers on Longines which is definitely a first and strang sight for me , hopefully we can agree this is one very strange layout!

Sorry but this is what I see….

Thanks for commenting.🤝

It's unfortunate because I want more companies to do these dive bezel + GMT watches. I want companies to see the demand for this functionality, but I can't get past the 3/6/9 situation.

I worry that executives will conflate the lack of interest in this design, with a lack of interest in dive/GMT watches, and that's absolutely not the case. They would crush it if they just implemented the design decisions I know they are capable of executing.

Longines seems to be too restricted by their historic catalog. All of their "new" watches are really refreshes of their historic catalog, and because of that, they force themselves to keep bad features because of the self-imposed requirement to carry over legacy design features.

A specific example is the long lugs. This is true of Hamilton as well: the reason they have such long lugs is because their older watches had long lugs. The problem is, watches were much smaller in diameter back then, so the long lugs made sense in context. As case sizes grew, they did not need to keep the same ratio for the lug length- but here we are. And they are very stubborn about keeping their long lugs despite the fact that human wrists are round, not flat.

I think it looks great! I can understand the 6 and 9 circular shapes not being the same as the others, but I understand that they wanted to differentiate it from the others. I’m just happy that they fixed the “bolt-on” look of the crown guards on both the Hydroconquest and the Conquest. The previous ones were so big and weren’t cohesive to the watch, imo.

I own "old" Hydroconquest and must say this is a bit of design miss. Big 6, 9 and 12 are the signature design thing of this line. The dial is off and 24h numbers are too small. I also don't like lolipop seconds hand, prefer old red arrow more. But can compliment new crown guard design and new bracelet+clasp, great job

Absolutely to many shapes.