Introducing: The 2025 Longines Spirit Zulu Time 1925 — Celebrating A Century Of Dual-Time Longines Watches
The 2025 Longines Spirit Zulu Time 1925 marks the 100th anniversary of the Swiss brand’s world-first dual-time wristwatch. You can’t say the rectangular timepiece from 1925 served as an inspiration from a design perspective, but it did in spirit (sorry about that). By adding a rose-gold-capped bezel insert with engraved numbers and indexes, the look of Longines’s do-it-all sports watch received a touch of retro.
I was impressed after looking up the first-ever second-time-zone watch Longines constructed in 1925. It looks funky and advanced and oozes a pioneering spirit. Would a rectangular reinterpretation do well in 2025? We will never know because Longines decided to use a watch from the Spirit Zulu Time line that debuted in 2022 as the platform for a celebratory watch. To be precise, the newest Spirit didn’t use the 42mm case from that year but, rather, the sleeker and smaller 39mm version that came out in 2023. The brand from Saint-Imier also added a few tweaks, which resulted in a more luxurious, slightly retro-looking watch.
Introducing the 2025 Longines Spirit Zulu Time 1925 with a touch of historical color
I’m sure the Longines Spirit Zulu Time is a watch with few secrets for the frequent Fratello reader. The steel 39mm case has a 13.5mm thickness, a 46.8mm length, a 21mm lug spacing, and a 100m water resistance rating. Inside the case, which shows strong, sporty lines, beats the COSC-certified Longines caliber L844.4. This automatic movement is based on the ETA A31 caliber and operates at 25,500vph. It boasts 72 hours of power reserve and features an antimagnetic silicon balance spring. Also noteworthy is the fact that this is a flyer-style GMT movement. In my opinion, this kind of movement is the best possible power source for a travel watch because it allows you to independently adjust the date-connected 12-hour hand without interrupting the movement’s timekeeping.
New to the Spirit
The Longines Spirit Zulu Time 1925 (L3.803.5.53.6) differs from other 39mm models due to a new bezel design that eschews the ceramic insert. Instead, the bidirectional bezel is adorned with a circular-brushed insert capped in 200 microns of 18K rose gold, a first for the collection. It shows 24-hour graduations, enabling the wearer to track two time zones at once in conjunction with the central 24-hour hand. The bezel’s engraved numbers and square indexes add depth to the design. According to Longines, the use of rose gold refers to the 350-year-old copper strip marking the Prime Meridian at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England.
To create a uniform look, the black dial shows many rose-tone details. The hands, wording, logo, applied numerals, and so on are all in the same shade as the bezel. In the press photos, this tone of rose gold looks dark and very similar to copper, as do the markings on the black dial. I know that shade references the copper strip marking the Prime Meridian, but I would like to see the watch in the metal to find out if the details are not “too coppery,” so to speak.
1925 Longines Zulu Time
Zulu?
If you don’t know where the Zulu name comes from, here goes. “Zulu” is the term used for the letter Z in the NATO phonetic alphabet. In professional aviation, “Zulu time” signifies the time at the zero meridian in Greenwich, London, now known as Universal Time (UTC +0). The colorful maritime Zulu flag representing the letter Z under the brand logo on the dial of the 1925 watch also served as a source of inspiration for the name of the multi-time-zone watches in the Spirit collection.
No, this is not Fratello’s Daan de Groot modeling the new Longines Spirit Zulu Time 1925; it’s Henry Cavill.
Back to the 2025 watch. The Longines Spirit Zulu Time 1925 (€4,500 / US$4,350 / £3,750) comes on a three-row steel bracelet with a folding safety clasp. Conveniently, it also has quick-release change tabs inside for whenever you want to swap it out for something else. Inside the special-edition box, you will also find a black NATO-style strap.
Any thoughts? Do you like the festive retro bezel and the Greenwich-linked story behind it? Let me know in the comments.
