jmarin.72 Posted March 3, 2009 Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobbieG Posted March 3, 2009 Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 I guess you had to know the resident hand wind chronograph parahistorian might take a crack at answering this one. I'm not a Longines historian though so you can use this to further date the piece exactly and price it accordingly. This is an at least fairly rare Longines moonphase chrono. It's movement is a Valjioux 7733 ebauche which dates the watch as made between 1969-1978. It is a 17 jewel manual winding cam/lever chrono that was the predecesor to the 7750. A little more history for you: Valjoux was founded in "Valley de Joux" in the mid-to-late part of the 19th century. Valjoux originally made timers (stopwatches) and chronograph movements. In 1890 or so, they invented the column wheel which revolutionized the chronograph movements. Virtually every chronograph movement made since then used a column wheel untill the late 40's or so when Landeron invented the cam/lever shuttle as a cheaper alternative. A majority of chronograph movements today use a cam/lever switch. Throughout the 20th century, manufacturers like: Valjoux, Lemania, Landeron & Venus made the vast majority of all chrono movements. When the watch business collapsed in the latter half of the 20th century, Venus failed and Valjoux bought them. Valjoux attained the rights to the new cam/lever and switch of the Caliber 188 that Venus had made. This was rebranded as the Valjioux 7730 and sold for a year or two until the Valjoux redesign of this movement was made - the 7733 - and variants 34, 35, 36, 37. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmarin.72 Posted March 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 You are a real treasure chest Rob!!! Thank you for you reply Cheers John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobbieG Posted March 3, 2009 Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 Yeah, cool movement though. Along the same lines as a Venus 175 or Lemania 2310 in terms of beat rate and layout - except being a cam/lever of course. It only came with various seconds at 6, single wheel date, and a 10 minute countdown timer of all things. For this reason I'm guessing the watch may be coveted as Longines would have has to build the moonphase module for it. It wasn't available as a base ebauche. Food for thought... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmarin.72 Posted March 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 Thank you Robbie.I was trying to find a caliber l502 but there was no indication that this brand had ever used a caliber l502!!!I would never have thought that this could be a Valjioux 7733 ebauche Well,thats why you are here i guess!!! With great respect as always towards you John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobbieG Posted March 3, 2009 Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 No problem John. Glad to be of help. I know the later Longines chronos that are along the lines of the Heuer Autavia type design from the 70's are getting $2500 and up. There are tons of them from all different brands - Doxa, etc. Anyway, this one is earlier and may be worth more you never know, although not as popular. Hard to say really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobbieG Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Also, you might try searching around the movement number with the Longines name and 60's or 70's in the criteria as well and see what you come up with. I have not seen another moonphase complication with that movement myself though. Maybe some other members here can shed some light... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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