Longines Conquest, reference L3.612.3, running – two-tone steel and gold-plated case with a Roman-numeral bezel, silver sunray dial, date, 100 metres, on an aftermarket steel bracelet. [IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ] The bracelet is not the original Longines bracelet. The inner blade of the clasp is stamped STAINLESS STEEL Bambi – Bambi is a Japanese aftermarket strap and bracelet maker – and there is no Longines marking anywhere on the bracelet, the clasp or the end links. It is a well-made seven-row steel bracelet that fits the watch correctly, but it is a replacement, and the watch is offered on that basis. Please take this into account when bidding. PLEASE NOTE: the watch is two-tone. The case and the caseback are stainless steel, as the caseback engraving ALL STAINLESS STEEL states, while the bezel ring, the crown and the end pieces between the lugs are gold-coloured. No 750, 18K or 0.750 hallmark was found anywhere on the watch under magnification, so the gold-coloured parts are gold-plated and no solid gold is involved. The line name is not printed on the dial or engraved on the caseback; the model is given as Conquest on the basis of the reference L3 612 3 engraved on the caseback, which belongs to that collection. The dial is printed 100 METERS and the caseback carries a boxed 100, but there is no WATER RESISTANT wording on the caseback and the gaskets have not been tested or replaced, so the water resistance is not guaranteed and the watch should be kept away from water. The dial is printed SWISS on its own, not SWISS MADE, and there is no tritium marking. The dial carries no QUARTZ marking and the caseback is closed, so the calibre could not be seen; the watch is listed as quartz. The crystal is not marked as sapphire anywhere, so no claim is made about its material. The markers and the hands carry luminous inserts, but whether they still glow could not be verified from the photographs. The lug width has not yet been measured with a caliper and is given below as an approximation. Overview A Longines Conquest for men in the two-tone configuration, with reference L3 612 3 engraved on the caseback. The silver dial has a fine sunray brushing that runs out from the centre and reads almost neutral – measured off the photographs it sits at a saturation of only 5 to 8 per cent, so it is a true silver rather than a champagne. Applied gold markers run round the dial, a trapezoid at 12 and 6, a wide block at 9 and slim bars elsewhere, each with a cream luminous insert, and a printed minute track with five-minute numerals frames them. The date sits in a stepped polished frame at 3 o'clock. The bezel is the detail that defines the watch: a fixed gold-coloured ring with raised Roman numerals at XII, III, VI and IX and four gold slotted screws at the quarter positions, set inside a coin-edge steel outer ring. The watch is running and the date is displayed correctly. Specifications - Brand: Longines - Model: Conquest – see the note above regarding how this is established - Reference number: L3.612.3, engraved on the caseback as L3 612 3 - Serial number: 28205045 (engraved on the caseback) - Date of manufacture: 1990s, most likely the first half, estimated from the L-prefix reference system that Longines adopted around 1990, the SWISS-only dial marking with no tritium notation, and the ALL STAINLESS STEEL screw-back construction; the exact year is not documented and cannot be established without an archive enquiry - Movement: quartz with date. The caseback is a closed screw back with eight notches, so the calibre could not be seen. - Case: stainless steel, round, with a fixed gold-plated bezel ring carrying raised Roman numerals at XII, III, VI and IX and four gold slotted screws at the quarter positions, set inside a coin-edge steel outer ring; fluted gold-coloured crown at 3 o'clock - Case diameter: 38 mm excluding the crown - Crystal: flat, with no scratches, chips or cracks found. It is not marked as sapphire, so no claim is made about the material. - Dial: silver with a fine sunray brushing. Measured off the photographs with the white background in the same frame used to correct the white balance, the dial reads at a saturation of 5 to 8 per cent, so a genuine neutral silver with no champagne cast. The gold-coloured parts of the watch measure around 50 per cent saturation by the same method, about eight times the dial, so the two are clearly different colours. - Dial printing: LONGINES with the winged hourglass logo below 12, 100 METERS above 6, and SWISS below the 30 on the minute track. That is the whole of the printing – there is no line name, no reference and no QUARTZ marking on the dial. - Markers: eleven applied gold markers – a trapezoid at 12 and 6, a wide rounded block at 9 and slim bars at 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10 and 11; the 3 o'clock position is taken by the date window. Each marker carries a cream luminous insert. A printed minute track with five-minute numerals runs round the edge. - Hands: three – gold baton hour and minute hands with pointed tips and a striped luminous insert along the centre, and a slim gold stick seconds hand with no luminous material - Luminous material: cream inserts in the markers and in the hour and minute hands, all present and none missing. Whether they still glow could not be verified from the photographs. - Date: framed window at 3 o'clock, white disc with black numerals, in a two-step polished frame - Water resistance: the dial is printed 100 METERS and the caseback carries a boxed 100, but the gaskets have not been tested – see the note above - Caseback engraving: L3 612 3 / ALL STAINLESS STEEL / a four-character case-maker mark reading approximately EJCo / two five-pointed stars / a boxed S / a boxed 100 / the Longines winged hourglass logo in relief with LONGINES and SWISS MADE / 28205045. Screw back with eight notches. No sticker. - Bracelet: aftermarket stainless steel bracelet by Bambi, not the original Longines bracelet – see the note above. Seven-row President-style design, folding clasp with a push-button chevron latch and a hairline-finished cover, with three micro-adjustment holes. The end pieces between the lugs are gold-coloured to match the case. - Lug width: approximately 20 mm, estimated from the photographs – to be confirmed by measurement - Wearable size: as currently linked the bracelet fits a wrist of up to approximately 164 mm, taken from the graduated cone in the photographs; the three micro-adjustment holes shorten that by roughly 5 to 6 mm, and links can be removed to go further - Weight: 93.06 g Condition Good, with visible signs of wear. - Dial: excellent. No crazing, no stains, no discolouration and no lifting of the markers were found under magnification, and the printing and the sunray brushing are crisp throughout. - Markers and luminous inserts: all present, firmly seated and free of corrosion, with no loss of the luminous material. - Crystal: no scratches, chips or cracks were found. - Hands: all three straight and clean, with no corrosion and no lifting of the luminous inserts. - Bezel: the gold-plated ring is continuous, with the Roman numerals and all four screws intact. No flaking, no lifting and no exposed base metal were found, and the whole watch was scanned for green corrosion with none found. The steel coin-edge outer ring carries a considerable number of fine scratches from normal wear, and these are the most visible marks on the watch. - Case and lugs: fine hairlines and small contact marks on the polished surfaces; no dents and no distortion. - Caseback: swirl-pattern hairlines from normal wear. No corrosion and no swelling. - Crown: intact and correctly seated, with the fluting complete and no chips or deformation. - Bracelet and clasp: no rust, including in the gaps between the links, which were checked by hand; no broken or missing links. The hairline-finished clasp cover carries clearly visible scratches running in several directions. Stretch could not be assessed from the photographs. Working order The watch is running. The seconds hand was measured against the timestamps of four separate photographs: over 15.0 seconds it advanced 85 degrees, and the offset between the camera clock and the hand position stayed constant across all four frames to within 0.6 seconds, which shows a steady rate rather than a hand that happened to be in a different place. The hour and minute hands agree with each other in every frame and the date is displayed correctly. The battery age is unknown. The chronometric accuracy, the date changeover and the water resistance have not been tested, and the movement has not been serviced. Please consider this a used watch that may require servicing at some point. Included Watch and bracelet only. No box, papers, warranty card, spare links or other accessories. Shipping Ships from Japan. Registered and insured shipping, mainly via DHL or FedEx. Import duties or taxes may apply depending on the buyer's country. These charges must be paid by the buyer. No weekend shipping as courier pickups are unavailable on Saturdays and Sundays. Please feel free to contact me with any questions before placing your bid.