Hands-On Review: Longines Delivers With Five New 38mm Conquest Models

Longines has just revamped its Conquest line of watches – the modern Conquest line – by injecting into it a new sense of color, and a not-so-novel, but nonetheless appreciated, approach to sizing. When it comes to color, the brand unveiled three pastel dial shades in its 34mm variants within the Conquest lineup. But other big news is the addition of a 38mm sizing where previously you were left only to be able to choose 41mm at the “large” end of the spectrum.

While the eye-catching pastel dials in blue, pink, and light green certainly took much of the release spotlight around the new Conquests, they only come in 34mm sizing and I can’t help but think that the less flashy dials in the new 38mm format is the real show-stealer here. We say this all the time, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that 38mm is that sweet spot for watch diameters. More and more brands are dabbling in the 37-38mm range as well. I wrote about the Zenith Defy Revival A3648 (in my debut article here at Teddy no less) which clocks in at 37mm. Then we have the Tudor Black Bay 54, and of course the fan-favorite Hamilton Khaki Field Murph 38 just to name a few. 

In short, 38mm is where it’s at, as is the simple time and date watch format in steel on a bracelet. Just look at how popular the Rolex Oyster Perpetual line is as a bare bones steel sports watch. Okay, that watch has no date, but it does bear a visual resemblance to these new Conquest models. I could just as easily throw the Datejust into the mix, but that feels less sporty in comparison. At Watches and Wonders 2023, we saw TAG Heuer get into this mix as well with its Carrera Date line.

What I mean to say is, don’t ever sleep on the “entry-level” simple steel sports watch. And what Longines has done here by releasing a series of dial colors in a 38mm size format should certainly be – um – awakened on. And now that our eyes are firmly open, let’s take a look at each.

What we have are five dial colors: Black, silver, green, champagne, and blue. While there is no functional difference between any of them, I like that Longines provided a spectrum of colors to appeal to basically any potential buyer.

The black dial presents as the most basic, almost the standard bearer when it comes to steel sports watches. The silver dial comes across as the cleanest of the bunch, the green the most distinctive, the champagne the most underrated and dress/casual-leaning, and the blue just a sharp watch full stop.

Looking at the dial, you certainly see the mid-century influence in overall layout. There’s an almost sector dial approach here with an inner and outer circular orientation. You will also notice that the markers are applied with lume only at the 12, three, six, and nine position with the six o’clock date window tucking neatly into that lower marker so as to preserve symmetry with the rest of the dial.

That symmetry also comes by way of the dial text furniture with two lines at the top (Longines word mark and logo), and two at the bottom (Conquest and Automatic text). The classiness of the overall look is matched by a certain ruggedness and capability. That’s because Longines has these rated to 100m of water resistance secured by a screw-down crown. That crown is further secured by the case itself in the form of crown-guards. And look, while the crown is large and definitely stands out against the more cosmopolitan look of the case and dial, you really don’t notice it on the wrist. I, for one, would rather have the added sense of security. 

This wears like a true 38mm watch as well. We all know that some Longines models have lugs longer than we might like, but here we get a rather compact 46.8mm lug-to-lug. And the watch itself is a mere 10.9mm in thickness. Inside the watch beats the ETA-based L888.5 movement with 72 hours of power reserve.

The sturdy H-link style bracelet also pairs nicely with the watch and feels really good on the wrist. There is a solidity to it and also a visual difference that separates it from the likes of, say, an Oyster style.

When it comes to picking a favorite dial color, it is honestly going to come down to personal preference. The two standouts for me were the silver and green. The silver presents far more eggshell than stark silver and makes for a proper everyday wear. If this watch is being added into a larger collection, I might suggest the champagne dial variation just because it feels distinctive to this new collection.

Overall, the real win here is that Longines has launched a new subsection of the Conquest line in 38mm. For me, this changes the context of the Conquest line overall and makes it difficult for me not to recommend it for that coveted “first watch” spot for a lot of people. The $2,075 price tag is hard to argue with as well. But enough of me talking, which of these dial options is your favorite?

Longines Conquest 38mm

Case Size: 38 mm Water Resistance: 100m, Case Material: Stainless steel, Crystal: Sapphire, Dial Colors: Silver, Black, Blue, Green, Champagne

Movement: Caliber L888.5, Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds and date, Power Reserve: 72 hours