First Impressions: Longines Hydroconquest

Credit: Longines

Let’s talk about the absolute heater Longines just dropped. The new HydroConquest collection may be one of the best dive watches in recent years across the board: specs, design, comfort, and price. Longines has been on a run of great releases lately, and this one might be the best yet.

The collection comes in two bracelet options, each with its own colorway lineup. On the H shape-link stainless bracelet, you get three ceramic bezel/dial combinations: black on black, green on green, and blue on blue. On the new Milanese mesh bracelet, the three options are gray on black, blue on black, and black on light blue. There’s also an exclusive variant with a darker blue bezel and a frosted blue sunray dial.

Credit: Longines

All references come in both 39mm and 42mm, and all of them clock in at just 11.7mm thick. I appreciate them offering two case sizes, it opens the watch up to a much wider audience. I recently wrote another blog post on the new Seiko Prospex Marinemaster and one of my only critiques was that the case diameter was too large for my wrist and I wished they’d released a smaller size. It’s nice to see Longines get this right out of the gate.

Credit: Longines

That 11.7mm profile is also worth noting, especially for a watch rated to 300 meters of water resistance. It makes you wonder why more dive watches aren’t prioritizing a thin profile. The new Milanese mesh bracelet looks like a standout piece. It reminds me of the mesh bracelet Omega puts on the Seamaster Diver 300M, but the Longines version looks slimmer and less bulky. I’ve always found the Omega clasp on that bracelet too chunky for the rest of the watch.

Credit: Longines

Then there’s the price. The HydroConquest retails for $2,200 on the H shape-link bracelet and $2,400 on the Milanese mesh regardless of case diameter. For a dive watch of this caliber, that’s a serious value proposition. One caveat worth mentioning: the Longines caliber L888 is not COSC certified, which likely explains the attractive price tag. That said, it’s a sufficiently capable movement at this price point. It’s officially rated at -5/+8 seconds per day, though real-world reports tend to run more accurate than that.

Credit: Longines

First impressions only go so far, so I’m going to make it a priority to get in front of these in person. If this collection holds up on the wrist the way it does in photos, Longines might have just made a new customer. This one has my full attention.

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