Watch news: Longines, Swatch, more

New York--Longines is reviving the medical watch it first introduced in the 1960s, a timepiece that measures the wearer’s vital signs in addition to keeping time.

"Be happy for this moment" and "this moment is for life" are the two messages communicated by Swatch's new This Moment watch.The newly reissued Asthmometer-Pulsometer Chronograph from Longines is based on a model originally created in 1963. In addition to telling time, the watch measures heart rate and respiration. The heart rate is tracked by the red scale while the blue one measures respiration. Both are modeled after the actual medical instruments on which they are based.

The 38.50 mm watch has a steel case with gold-plated hour markers and hands on a black alligator strap.

Also new from Longines is the addition of more colorful models to its HydroConquest line of diving watches. The new models have a round steel case with a diameter of 39 mm or 41 mm with dials in black, white or blue with details in bright red.

The three-hand HydroConquest models come with either a quartz or an automatic movement, while the chronograph version has ETA’s L688 column-wheel movement or are quartz. Both steel and black rubber bracelets are available.

HydroConquest watches are water resistant to 30 bar (300 meters) and have unidirectional rotating bezels, SuperLumiNova hands and a double-safety diving folding clasp and diving extension.

Jewelry watch could be cat’s meow
Luxury watch brand Girard-Perregaux recently introduced a new women’s watch, a “Cat’s Eye” tourbillon diamond-set watch with a mother-of-pearl dial.

The white gold watch has an oval shape and more than 1,000 “snow-set” diamonds. Snow-set is a term used to refer to a type of setting where the stones are positioned so nothing else is visible aside from the crimping grains and also to the fit the curvature of the watch case. It takes a total of three weeks to set each Cat’s Eye watch.

The mechanical, manual-wind watch is 38.40 x 32.90 mm and is powered by an in-house movement visible through an aperture on the dial. The timepiece has a power reserve of 70 hours.

Swatch encourages savoring This Moment
From Swatch Group’s eponymous brand is a model that encourages wears to stop and soak it all in, essentially.

Being “mindful for the need for silence” in today’s fast-paced world, Swatch Group created the This Moment watch (SUOW106) in the