274 Longines Extremely Rare and Sought-After Oversize 13ZN Central Minute Counter Chronograph in Steel, Reference 5161, With Original Box, Extract From Archives and Published in the LONGINES LEGENDARY WATCHES Book

Estimate: € 20.000 –⁠ 40.000

During the history of watchmaking, many brands have dedicated themselves to the creation of cases of particular shape able to amaze and steal the heart of collector. Moreover, if to this is added one of the most important calibers ever manufactured by a brand and a totally unusual configuration to express the chronometric registration, automatically that watch becomes an amazing piece. Longines from this point of view can absolutely be considered an innovative brand and one examples is provided by the here offered Minute Counter. At a first glance it might seem like a simple chronograph but its peculiarity lies in the highly unusual arrangement of the chronographic hands: instead of having the minutes register at 3 o’ clock, there is a supplementary central hand for the minutes while the subsidiary counter are used for 12 hours registration and constant seconds. The caliber used is the 13ZN and is stored into a three bodies stainless steel case of 39 mm diameter with snap on back excellently preserved by the past owner. The silver dial is wondrous for its daintiness with an electric blue tachymeter scale that complete it. Nowadays, the central hands can be found on a number of modern watches but the present example can be considered as one of the fathers of this always appreciated innovation.With the Longines Extract from the Archives confirming case, movement, production and subsequent sale on 21 March 1945 to the company Hitz, which was at that time the Longines agent for Venezuela and published in the LONGINES LEGENDARY WATCHES book on pages 406-407.