Longines has been making beautiful watches for well over a hundred years. Most of these are men’s watches, but the company has some very fine watches for women as well. Some of the best of these are the watches of the Elegance series. Within this series are a few distinct “sub-ranges”, one of which is the PrimaLuna series. Round case shapes, small size, and use of embellishments characterize watches from this sub-range.

There are several variations of the PrimaLuna watch. The basic design of all of them was inspired by the moon’s nightly climb into the sky. Naturally, that means several of them are silver-toned with white or silver-toned dials. Blued steel hands add a little color to these models, and also make an appearance on several of the more colorful ones as well. Different models use diamonds in different ways, which can make a big difference in otherwise similar-looking models. For instance, reference number L8.110.0.71.6, with its stark black Roman numeral hour markers and diamond-crusted bezel looks quite different from reference number L8.109.4.87.6, which has a smooth bezel and Wesselton diamonds for hour markers.

But the moon isn’t always silvery white, is it? Many models in this series incorporate yellow gold or red gold, which bring to mind the colors of the big harvest moons sometimes seen in the sky.  There are two done all in red gold (including the bracelet) and two more all in yellow gold, but most have some combination of gold and steel. The ones with yellow gold bezel, crown, and links in the bracelet are especially nice-looking. The black leather strap that’s used in place of a bracelet on reference numbers L8.113.8.83.2 (red gold case) and L8.111.7.16.2 gives those models the appearance of a full moon rising through the night sky.

The movement inside this watch is a quartz movement by Longines, the base movement of which is an ETA piece. While a relatively uncomplicated quartz movement doesn’t carry all the same excitement as a good mechanical timepiece, it doesn’t really hurt the appeal of this watch, which was obviously designed with beauty and elegance in mind.