These informations were mostly gathered through my own experience, from watches I actually had in hands. They reflect what I observed and are not the holy truth. Page updated April, 4th 2026.
Text & Pictures : D. Broglin – Watch & Vintage
The Admiral has been introduced in ca 1967 and first only housed the Record designed Longines 500 family movements (501, 503, 505, 506, 507, 508). Shortly after the launch of the range, the Admiral was also proposed with the 431 36,000 bph calibre, that had been conceived for the Ultra-Chron range. The design of the Admirals is quite versatile, from classical dress watches to diver’s and more sporty models.
The design
Cases
The cases of the Admiral have many different designs (round, “c-shape”, tonneau, cushion…), without any common specificities. Most of them were between 34 and 36 mm wide, they could be of monobloc type (with a split stem) or with a screw back. Some cases were in solid gold 18k.
Dials and hands
The colours of the dials remained classical, even in the 70s. Many dials were champagne or silver, blue and black ones are rarer. All had at least a date window, the day & date versions are rarer, based on the 506 and 508 calibres. The hands were mostly pencils or batons
The movements
There were several movements available in the Admiral : the most common ones are the “500” beating at 19,800 bph (505, 506) and 21,600 bph (507, 508) and which were available from 1967 to 1974. In parallel, the Admiral was as well available with the more performant 431 calibre, beating at 36,000 bph. In 1973, Longines downgraded the 431 movement to the 6651, beating at 28,800 bph. Finally, for the last couple of years of the production of this 1st generation Admiral, Longines decided to source the movement of the Admiral at ETA, namely the ETA 2824 and named it L.633.
Some rarer versions of the Admiral (Admiral HF) had a hand-wound 6942 movement.
Some examples
Successors, reissue
The Admiral has been sold at least until 2010 in different versions, including automatic chronographs. As far as I know, it has never been fitted with a quartz movement which is quite noticeable.
Today, and despite the trend of the “Heritage” and “Vintage” ranges, the Admiral range is not available anymore.
List of all models Longines Admiral 1967-76
