Longines adds blue dials to the Spirit Pilot and Spirit Pilot Flyback
Longines has added blue-dialled versions of its Spirit Pilot and Spirit Pilot Flyback, extending a collection that has grown steadily since the Spirit line arrived in 2020.
What has been announced
On 24 September 2026, the watch press reported that Longines has expanded the Spirit Pilot collection with four new references, all sharing a matte blue dial. Both models join the permanent catalogue rather than being limited editions. The two lines — the three-hand Spirit Pilot and the chronograph Spirit Pilot Flyback — were introduced in 2025 as a slimmer, more focused reading of the brand’s long aviation history, which runs back through the pilots and pioneers Longines has equipped for the better part of a century.
The Spirit Pilot keeps a 39 mm stainless-steel case, 11.5 mm thick and water-resistant to 100 metres, with a sapphire crystal anti-reflective coated on both faces. There is no date window. Applied rhodium-plated Arabic numerals and matching hands are filled with Super-LumiNova, a railroad-style minutes track runs around the dial’s edge, and the central seconds hand finishes in a rhomboid tip. Inside is the Longines-exclusive calibre L888.4, an automatic movement derived from the ETA 2892 that beats at 25,200 vibrations an hour, offers 72 hours of power reserve, uses a silicon balance spring and carries COSC chronometer certification. It is offered on a steel bracelet (ref. L3.809.4.93.6) or on a blue rubber strap (ref. L3.809.4.93.9).
The Spirit Pilot Flyback is the more elaborate of the pair. Its case measures 39.5 mm across and 13.4 mm thick, keeps the same 100 metres of water resistance, and adds two pump-style pushers and a bidirectional bezel with a blue ceramic insert carrying a countdown scale. Powering it is the hand-wound calibre L792.4 — a Valjoux 7750 descendant reworked with a column wheel and a flyback function — running at 28,800 vibrations an hour with 68 hours of reserve and COSC certification, visible through a sapphire case back. It comes as L3.721.4.93.6 on steel or L3.721.4.93.9 on rubber.
Size, and a broader shift
The more telling detail is the size. The earlier automatic Spirit Flyback was a 42 mm watch; the hand-wound Flyback introduced in 2025, and carried into this blue edition, is 39.5 mm — a considerable reduction. The three-hand Spirit Pilot sits at 39 mm. That follows a wider move across the industry towards smaller, more wearable cases, and it widens the group of buyers a pilot’s watch can suit. A 42 mm chronograph is a proposition many wrists cannot carry comfortably; a 39.5 mm one is far easier, and a 39 mm three-hander easier still.
Prices
European pricing was given as €2,600 for the Spirit Pilot on a rubber strap and €2,950 on the steel bracelet, and as €5,050 and €5,400 respectively for the Spirit Pilot Flyback. United States prices were quoted at $2,700 and $3,100 for the Pilot, and $5,250 and $5,550 for the Flyback. UK retail pricing had not been published in the coverage at the time of writing. That places the Spirit family well below the price of most Swiss pilot chronographs, and it is a large part of why the line has been so widely bought — and so widely traded.
What it means if you are buying or selling
Longines is one of the most widely traded brands in the UK pre-owned market, and the Spirit family sits at an accessible price point that keeps it moving. A new colourway does not, by itself, change what an existing Spirit reference is worth. What a permanent, non-limited model does is feed the second-hand market steadily rather than in a single wave of flips, and blue is among the most broadly appealing dial colours — a small point in favour of long-term appeal.
For sellers, the lesson is unchanged. The launch of a new colour does not set the price of the watch in front of you; the reference, its condition, its completeness and its history do. For buyers, a blue Spirit Pilot or Flyback will be easier to live with, and easier to move on, than a more idiosyncratic dial — which matters more to what a watch is worth in five years than any launch-week excitement. Either way, knowing what a specific watch is worth, rather than what the market feels like on a given day, is what turns a decision into a considered one.
Sources
- Monochrome Watches — Longines Expands the Spirit Pilot Collection with Four New Sky Blue References (24 September 2026) — monochrome-watches.com/longines-spirit-pilot-and-spirit-pilot-flyback-blue-dials-2026-review-price/
- Teddy Baldassarre — Longines Explores The Wild Blue Yonder With New Spirit Pilot & Spirit Pilot Flyback Editions (24 September 2026) — teddybaldassarre.com/blogs/watches/longines-spirit-pilot-blue
- Longines — official website — www.longines.com/
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