Despite an impressively consistent run of solid releases in recent years, Longines remains something of a dark horse in the modern enthusiast landscape. For 2025, though, the brand seems intent on revamping its image to include a more contemporary, trendy feel, and to accomplish this Longines is ringing in the new year with a moody, futuristic take on a vintage-styled classic. The new Longines Ultra-Chron Carbon brings carbon case construction to the brand’s lineup for the first time, alongside a rakish monochrome color palette and a focused execution that gives this ‘60s-era silhouette an ultra-modern spirit.
Although the overall 43mm-wide cushion form of the Longines Ultra-Chron Carbon might be lifted from the standard Ultra-Chron, Longines makes a concerted effort to give this design a unique character. Of course, simply rendering this shape in matte carbon fiber goes a long way toward establishing a new identity for the watch, but the brand shows impressive attention to fine detail in images. This shines through brightest in the way the carbon case is created. Rather than the random swirling patterns or chaotic flake texture of other carbon forging methods, Longines uses a layered mix of unidirectional carbon fiber and epoxy resin. This allows for smooth, flowing striations of black and gray that work to accentuate the linear surfaces of the case sides and the chamfers in images. This is especially effective for the chamfers in photos, with a gentle curvature that highlights the rounded flaring shape of the surface handsomely. The upper case surfaces and the caseback side are then rendered with the more common flake method, giving these flat areas a dynamic, futuristic look without fully losing the overall shape of the watch to camouflaging texture. Longines also makes massive changes to the Ultra-Chron Carbon’s bezel. Rather than the rotating, bakelite-effect sapphire bezel of the steel model, this new version instead uses a fixed, smooth-edged titanium bezel with a 60-minute insert in matte black aluminum. Not only does the darker, simplified construction suit the moodier tone of the design well, but the insert itself is radically simplified, abandoning the full 60-minute scale in favor of cleaner markings at five-minute intervals. With that said, there will certainly be some who mourn the loss of a usable rotating bezel here. Both the screw-down crown and the engraved solid caseback follow the bezel’s lead with their titanium construction, allowing this heavily altered design to still reach a dive-ready 300 meters of water resistance.
While the Longines Ultra-Chron Carbon’s case adds some genuine physical changes to go along with its new materials, the dial instead focuses on a stark, monochrome presentation of familiar elements. Rather than the khaki tones, polished elements, and red highlights that dominate the dial of the standard Ultra-Chron, the Ultra-Chron Carbon offers a high-contrast black-and-white color palette. Both the wide baton hands and the beveled indices are coated in charcoal gray PVD for a stealthy look, but the bright white lume fills and full outer seconds scale keep the layout quite legible in photos. Outside of the colorway shifts, there’s little to differentiate this dial from the standard model, and continued elements like a blacked-out version of the applied Ultra-Chron logo at 6 o’clock work to breathe life into what feels at times to be a sterile design.
Like its predecessor, the Longines Ultra-Chron Carbon sports the L836.6 automatic movement, built exclusively for Longines by Swatch Group sister company ETA. The L836.6 is a stellar performer, combining a rare high-frequency 36,000 bph beat rate with a magnetic-resistant silicon balance spring and a solid 52-hour power reserve. Its real strength, however, is its accuracy. The movement, fully cased and assembled into the watch is independently chronometer-certified by Swiss testing laboratory TIMELAB. While it may not reach the heights of sister brand Omega’s METAS certification, this does make the L836.6 extremely competitive at its price point.
To complete the design, Longines fits the Ultra-Chron Carbon with a woven black fabric strap featuring a titanium buckle. It’s a natural fit for the ethos of the watch in images, and it’s difficult to imagine a more traditional leather option serving the watch well here. However, for those who value aftermarket strap choices, this seems like a natural candidate for either rubber or a NATO-style strap.
With so many solid releases in recent years, Longines seems overdue for greater prominence in modern enthusiast circles. Much of this may come down to brand perception rather than the watches themselves, and modernist, high-quality offerings like the new Longines Ultra-Chron Carbon might well be the thing to shift enthusiast perceptions in 2025. The Longines Ultra-Chron Carbon is available now through authorized dealers. MSRP for this watch stands at $4,900 USD as of press time. For more information, please visit the brand’s website.
