Longines Gives The Spirit Pilot And Spirit Pilot Flyback A Matte Blue Dial

Longines launched the Spirit collection in 2020, and it has since become the brand's main contemporary line. Last year's Spirit Pilot and Spirit Pilot Flyback were a major moment for the collection: smaller, cleaner and more committed to the aviation theme than the Spirits that came before. For 2026 both get a small update in the form of matte blue dials, while the Flyback also gets a matching blue ceramic bezel.

The Spirit Pilot is 39mm wide and 11.5mm thick in brushed and polished steel, with a lug-to-lug of 47.4mm. There's a sapphire crystal on top, a screw down caseback out back, a screw-down crown on the right side and you get 100 meters of water resistance. The Flyback measures 39.5mm wide and 13.4mm thick on the same 47.4mm lug-to-lug, with a box-shaped sapphire crystal and a bidirectional bezel with a blue ceramic countdown insert. Water resistance is 100 meters. These are pretty good dimensions for both variants.

The new blue dials are pretty handsome. Applied rhodium-plated Arabic numerals and hands are filled with Super-LumiNova, a railroad minute track runs around the perimeter, and an inner ring of rhomboid markers counts off five-second intervals, echoed by the rhomboid tip on the seconds hand. There's no date. The Flyback keeps its two sub-dials, running seconds at nine and a 30-minute counter at three, with silver colored hands.

The Spirit Pilot uses the Longines-exclusive calibre L888.4, an evolution of the ETA 2892, beating at 3.5Hz with 72 hours of power reserve, a silicon hairspring and COSC certification. The Flyback uses the hand-wound calibre L792.4, based on the Valjoux 7750 but reworked with a column wheel and flyback function, running at 4Hz with 68 hours of reserve, a silicon hairspring and COSC certification, visible through a sapphire caseback. Both come on either a steel bracelet with a micro-adjustable double folding clasp or a blue rubber strap with a pin buckle and quick-release system.

The Longines Spirit Pilot Blue is priced at €2,600 on rubber and €2,950 on the bracelet, while the Spirit Pilot Flyback Blue is priced at €5,050 on rubber and €5,400 on the bracelet. Both are available now as part of the permanent collection. See more on the Longines website (when they show up some time this week).