Longines CEO Patrick Aoun on Precision, Elegance, and the Future of Accessible Luxury

By Rob Stott - News

Updated: 6 August, 2026

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Readtime: 7 min

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Longines CEO Patrick Aoun is a busy man. In Glasgow for the 2026 Commonwealth Games – where Longines is the official timekeeper and a key sponsor – he’s overseeing a team of 150 Longines staff, who will use 24km of cabling and 103 tonnes of equipment to track more than 50,000 individual timing statistics, including 510 photo finishes. Decisions and evaluations are made almost instantly and relayed live to stands full of packed fans and TV audiences around the world. 

In between his official duties – he’s spent the last several days running from event to event, presenting gold medals (mostly to Australians, it must be noted) – Aoun sat down with Man of Many to discuss not only the Games, but also the past, present and future of one of the most storied maisons in Swiss horology. 

Longines’ Strategic Focus: Master Collection and HydroConquest

And there’s no doubt that since Aoun took the reins of the storied brand in June 2025,  Longines is having a moment. The update of the Master collection earlier this year was widely praised by enthusiasts, and Aoun teases a “big reveal” involving the collection to be announced on August 25.

“We’ve seen people coming to boutiques buying two and three HydroConquest pieces for themselves and their children. That was phenomenal,” Aoun says. “ is, in my view, the best mechanical timepiece that you could buy in our price segment.”

“When you think of the moon phase complication, when you think of the aesthetic, the Longines movements we deploy, the beauty of this timeless piece… Master Collection is a pillar collection,” he says. 

Meanwhile, the new HydroConquest range has proved so popular that Aoun says he has forbidden Longines staff from picking one up for themselves, in order to prioritise the end-consumer. Recently, the special edition Commonwealth Games HydroConquest sold out almost instantly everywhere, except for a handful of pieces held back specifically for lucky enthusiasts who could find them dotted around Glasgow boutiques during the Games’ 11-day run.

HydroConquest Commonwealth Games Special key specs

• Case diameter: 39mm or 42mm
• Case thickness: 11.7mm
• Lug-to-lug: 48.1mm (39mm case) / 51.2mm (42mm case)
• Movement: Longines-exclusive Calibre L888.5 automatic (silicon balance spring)
• Frequency: 25,200 vph
• Power reserve: Approximately 72 hours
• Functions: Hours, minutes, central seconds, date window at 3 o’clock
• Water resistance: 300 metres (30 bar)
• Crystal: Scratch-resistant sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on both sides
• Bezel: Unidirectional rotating ceramic bezel with teal accents
• Dial: Gradient teal-to-black lacquered dial with violet HydroConquest text and pink-tipped seconds hand
• Strap: Black rubber strap with double-folding security clasp
• Caseback: Screw-down solid caseback engraved with official Glasgow 2026 logo and “One of 2026”
• Availability: Limited edition of 2,026 pieces per size

Despite Longines’ surging popularity, Aoun says he’s determined to keep the maison’s watches firmly within an attainable price band for everyday enthusiasts who value heritage and Swiss mastery. Aoun says he wants Longines to remain a brand where buyers “get more than they pay for.”

And that means that, even for a Swiss dive watch that can go to a depth of 300 metres, he wants to keep Longines pricing below 2,000 CHF ($3,500).

Longines at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games

Behind the ceremonial duties is a far more serious operation. In events like athletics, swimming and cycling, there’s no room for error for either the competitors or the timekeepers whose technology ultimately decides who takes home the gold. At the athletics track, Man of Many was given a sneak peek at the team who have to make their own split-second conclusions about results that often come down to a fraction of a fraction of a second. 

CEO of Swiss Timing, Alain Zobrist, used the example of the men’s 100-metre final at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, where the event was decided by 0.005 seconds – Noah Lyles ran a 9.784 to Kishane Thompson’s 9.789. At that speed, the difference was 5.6cm, which was undetectable to the human eye in the moment. It’s Longines’ job to never miss that difference. 

A draw, Zobrist says, is unacceptable. “There are no draws”.

Longines’ association with the Games stretches back to Perth 1962, but its association with precision timekeeping and sports started with the first 1/10th-second chronograph in 1910 and the 1937 introduction of photoelectric timing, which led to modern 40,000-line digital photo-finishes. At Longines House on the sidelines of the Games, enthusiasts can see the actual technology behind the first photo finishes in sporting history, as well as the official timekeeping for Lindbergh’s first-ever Atlantic Crossing by plane in 1927. 

In Glasgow, any athlete who breaks a Games record is given a certificate and their very own Longines timepiece. Among those being awarded on the day Man of Many is in attendance are Australian men’s pole vaulter Kurtis Marschall, who set a record by clearing 5.85 metres to secure gold, and 18-year-old long jumper Layla Sharp, who set a record of 5.06 metres in the Women’s Long Jump T38. 

With a record haul of 70 gold medals, Australia ultimately cost Longines a bit of money at these Games, but it’s a price that Aoun says he’s happy to pay. 

“It was an absolute delight to see their emotions and their pride”, Aoun says. “What it means to them is fantastic, and there’s no price to that emotion when you experience it. That’s why we award record breakers with Longines timepieces: these watches become life companions that remind them of an incredible moment in their lives – a timepiece they can carry forward for the rest of their lives and even pass on to the next generation.”

Luxury & Horology: Patrick Aoun on Longines’ Heritage

In a world where no one needs a watch to tell the time anymore – after all, we all already carry the entirety of human knowledge and history in our pockets – Aoun says he will forsake even an excellent commercial opportunity if it means straying from what he sees as the three strands of the brand’s core DNA: tradition, elegance, and performance.

“You throw your phone away every two or three years to get the next one. Timepieces carry the most emotional connection to our lives,” Aoun says. “It’s alive; it has a soul, and you feel it on your wrist. You see yourself in the timepiece you choose.”

Aoun sees Longines’ timekeeping responsibility as more than just a service provided to the Games. It’s symbolic of the brand’s mixture of heritage, luxury and technology. It’s a balance that can be tricky to strike when any modern maison that wants to survive into the future will need to balance the desires of traditional enthusiasts with a new breed of TikTok “watchfluencers” who value constant innovation and new designs. 

“The younger generation thinks differently, and that’s fine,” he says. “It’s up to us to adapt while remaining authentic. Being traditional doesn’t mean being obsolete; It doesn’t mean doing what we did 100 years ago without changing – we evolve.”

Authenticity, he says, will be key to the brand’s longevity, a commitment to quiet luxury that will remain relevant for timepieces he hopes will be passed down through generations, enduring beyond the trends of any one day. 

“Trends fade away, but quiet luxury lasts”, he says. “Look at our rectangular DolceVita or the Master Collection – both are inspired by designs we created 100 years ago. Quiet luxury requires consistency, focus, longevity, and authenticity. If you chase trends, you change masks every day, and consumers will ask who you really are.”

Disclosure: This writer travelled as a guest of Longines. Longines had no input on the production of this story beyond facilitating access to CEO Patrick Aoun.