Hi Ben,
My only goal is to try and document the watch as well as I can, and this is not easy as it is very rare. I have no interest in any kind of polemic, I am neither a watch maker, nor a dealer, just a simple enthusiast.
I just received the below mail from Bernard at the Longines archives (in French sorry!) on another forum, who has been very kind to go and look and the micro film archives (yes like in early James Bond movies!) and found out some new info! So it looks there were at least 2 different constructions of the watch, one specific for Longines Wittnauer in the US, and at least another, for the European markets, others?
So and this is confirmed by another e mail from Longines, my watch has been made and delivered to Wittnauer in the US in Dec 1959. It looks like Bernard confirms that it is a Piquerez case, so yes a SC case! that's different from the info I had before, but this one is official. The drawings of the case are dated 7. April 1959, has there been a different case for the 1958 productions? could be!?
It also appears, the bezel is original and specific for the US market, therefore different from the plastic bezel of the Europe version as on the catalogue!
I hope we are close to resolving all the enigmas! The great thing about this forum (and others) is that by sharing all the infos from all enthusiasts we manage to put some bits and pieces together!
thanks for your help and big thanks to Bernard!
Matt
Re: MattS: La Longines Nautilus Skin diver 1958-1959