still to be verified
In one line
The mainplate reads LONGINES SWISS and 490; underneath sits an Election 885 that had already done a spell as a Marvin. Seventeen jewels, 21,600 vph and sub-seconds at six.
First things first: what you are actually buying
A Longines with a 490 inside is a good watch and a weak collector's argument. A Longines-signed mainplate does not make the movement a Longines: this is a bought-in ébauche, directly related to calibres signed Election and Marvin, with parts that cross between all three names.
That shows up in the price. On the vintage market, a Flagship with a 30L and a Flagship with a 490 can look like the same watch and be worth nothing like the same money.
That said, as a movement it holds its own: 17 jewels, Kif Ultraflex shock protection, a movable stud holder and around 46 hours of running. None of that is bargain-basement for a hand-wound calibre of the late 1960s.
490 versus 30L
Both are 17-jewel hand-wound calibres and both go into a Flagship. The resemblance stops there.
| 30L | ||
|---|---|---|
| Origin | Longines in-house | Election 885 ébauche |
| Frequency | 18,000 vph | 21,600 vph |
| Jewels | 17 | 17 |
| Diameter | ~30 mm | 29.4 mm |
| Power reserve | ~47 h | 46 h |
| Vintage market price | The benchmark | Well below it |
The 30L is the calibre people buy a Flagship for. The 490 is the one that turns up when the budget will not stretch, and it works.
If you want the watch, the 490 will do. If you want the movement, it will not.
From Election to Marvin, and from Marvin to Longines
The movement was not born in Saint-Imier. The base belongs to Election, which built it first as the calibre 875 at 18,000 vph and then raised it to 21,600 as the 885. Around 1960 the design passed to Marvin, which sold it as the calibre 700 and, with a date, as the 700C. It reached Longines at the end of the 1960s, and Longines put its own name and the number 490 on it.
The reason was the usual one: money. Longines had spent years making its own hand-wound calibres — the 30L is the one everybody knows — and that way of working had become expensive. The 490 went into the Flagship, the very line the brand had built on in-house movements, and pushed the 30L and the 30LS out of it.
The irony is that the cheap replacement beat faster than the original. The 30L runs at 18,000 vph; the 490 at 21,600. On paper, the bought-in ébauche was the modern one.
Two notes
- Three names, one movement Election 875, Election 885, Marvin 700, Marvin 700C and Longines 490 are all variants of one base. A good many parts interchange across the three brands, which anyone repairing one will be grateful for.
- The shock setting in the signature The signature on these movements includes 'Kif-Ultraflex', the shock protection made by Kif Parechoc. It is the detail that separates a 490 at a glance from the Omegas and ETAs of the same years, which almost always use Incabloc.
Technical data
| Diameter | 29.4 mm (13 lignes) |
|---|---|
| Casing diameter | 29.0 mm |
| Height | 3.20 mm |
| Frequency | 21,600 vph (3 Hz) |
| Lift angle | 49° |
| Shock protection | Kif Ultraflex |
| Jewels | 17 |
| Power reserve | 46 hours |
| Seconds | Sub-seconds at six |
| Stud holder | Movable |
| Base | Election 885 |
On the bench
Lift angle 49°. Not the 52° of the contemporary Omegas, so leave the timing machine on its default setting and every amplitude reading will be wrong.
Balance staff U3312, stem W3262, mainspring 1.30 × 11.5 × 0.14 mm. For spares, look at the Election 875 and 885 and the Marvin 700 and 700C as well: same family, and a lot of parts fit.
Watches that used it
- Longines Flagship ref. 8236, plus the 8236-2 and 8236-4 variants
- Slim Longines dress watches of the 1960s and 1970s, in steel and 9-carat gold