BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
The Commonwealth Games may not be as big or as popular as the Olympics, but they’re no less important to the competing athletes. For the 2026 Games, which are due to start in late July and finish in early August, Longines has once again joined the Games as their official timing partner and has just released a limited-edition piece to mark the occasion.
Using their recently refreshed Hydroconquest as a base, Longines has made subtle retouches to the design. A bright turquoise colour in the centre of the dial fades to black around the edges. Meanwhile, the seconds hand has a pink tip, and the Hydroconquest name is written in violet. These make up the colours of this year’s games, and they work pretty fantastically on the new Hydroconquest watch, or maybe that’s just because the base watch itself looks so good these days. The model comes in two sizes, 39mm (Ref. L3.779.4.09.9) or 42mm (Ref. L3.788.4.09.9) in diameter, with both watches being 11.7mm thick and rated to 300m of water resistance. Both pieces come with a black rubber strap, and the ceramic diving bezel is a nice touch.
Inside both sizes of Longines’ new Hydroconquest is the calibre L888.5, which is made for Longines by its Swatch Group-owned sister, ETA, though it’s made to Longines’ standards and is exclusive to them. It features a 3.5Hz beat rate with a power reserve of approximately 72 hours. It would be nice to see the movement in action (when isn’t it?), but we get a customised caseback featuring the 2026 Commonwealth Games logo and a reminder that each watch is one of 2,026. That’s 2,026 watches per size, by the way, so they’re making 4,052 in total.
The price for either size watch is USD2,400/EUR2,300/GBP2,050/CHF1,905, which isn’t bad at all for what you’re getting. With so many watch brands creeping their prices up, it’s nice to see that Longines is staying firm with its price list for the moment.
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