Longines Legend Diver 39 mm L3.764.4.50.0

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The storyWhy this reference matters

In 1959 Longines released a diver, reference 7042, remembered today mostly for its case: an EPSA Super Compressor, with a back mounted on a spring that squeezed the gasket harder the deeper you went. Pressure stopped being the enemy and started sealing the watch. Two screw-down crowns, one for the time and one to move a rotating ring housed inside the case, out of reach of knocks and clumsy fingers. It measured 42 mm, which for the late fifties was outrageous.

Longines brought it back in 2007 as the Legend Diver, by then without the Super Compressor case — the back became a conventional screw-in — but keeping what made the original worth keeping: two crowns and an internal bezel. It turned into one of those watches that sells itself among enthusiasts, with no campaign and no ambassador, on sheer stubbornness of design. For years it was how a lot of people got into modern vintage.

The 39 mm version landed in 2023, and losing the millimetres suited it. No date, a black lacquer dial, a box-shaped domed sapphire and the L888.6 calibre — COSC certified, silicon hairspring, 21 jewels, 72 hours. The 300 metres is backed by ISO 6425 dive watch certification, not by a figure printed on the dial and left at that.

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IdentificationHow to tell it apart

Two crowns, both screw-down. The one at two o'clock turns the internal ring, graduated to sixty minutes; the one at four winds and sets the time. If either fails to screw down sweetly, that's a conversation to have before any money changes hands. The dial is glossy black lacquer, with no date window — on the 39 mm there isn't one.

Box sapphire, 12.7 mm thick, 47 mm lug to lug, 20 mm lugs. That combination is the reason a 300-metre watch wears like a thick dress watch rather than a brick. This reference leaves the factory on brown leather; the same dial exists on a beads-of-rice bracelet, and there is a blue dial too.

It is not a genuine Super Compressor, whatever the listings claim. The back screws down in the ordinary way and carries none of EPSA's engraved diver. Anyone selling you the modern watch as a compressor is either confused or hoping you are.

CollectingWhat collectors check

Try the internal bezel before anything else: with the crown unscrewed it should turn both ways, stay exactly where you leave it, and not drag on the dial. It's the most watch-specific part in there and the most expensive to put right if someone has forced it with the crown half screwed in.

Two crowns means two more gaskets than usual. If the watch has spent its life at the beach or in a pool, ask when the gaskets were last changed and get a pressure test. The black lacquer dial is lovely and completely unforgiving: a fingerprint, a speck of dust or a screwdriver slip shows from across the room.

When you're comparing listings, be clear which one is in front of you. The 42 mm from 2007 onwards is the one you'll see most, and some versions carry a date; the 39 came later, without a date, with the COSC-rated L888.6 and a dial most people think is better resolved. They are not the same watch and they don't fetch the same money.

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