Opinions Pls : Longines Hydroconquest or ORIS Aquis Date

[tjwen]

Hi all Sifus, I've been thinking to buy my first swiss divers watch, and I just can't decide between the two. Am looking for a little help to decide on which one. Appreciate all your opinions, please!

1. Longines Hydroconquest, Eta 2824 movement, 41mm, SS bracelet
2. ORIS Aquis Date, Sellita SW200 movement, 43mm, SS bracelet




Cheers!

[mike]

What about the Longines Legend Diver?

[Devilzzz44]

U should consider Longines Legend Diver..

[Everdying]

ppl asking for watch that sells around rm3k, now come the more expensive options

but between those 2, obviously diff watches.
the longines is more casual like, while the oris is very tool like and can also take a good beating and survive well.

[gunsnroses]

Well, I was, well, am in still the same situation as you are. Here's my take on things:

Longines Legend Diver
 - By far the nicest ever diver's watch in that category, however, the strap is really bad. You will need to change the strap if you want to use this for water sports or swimming.

Oris Aquis
 - Some say the Sellita movement may (big 'may' there) be sub-standard to the ETA, but if this doesn't bother you, it's a better bet than the Hydroconquest for a few reasons, firstly, the buckle on the rubber strap. Just go physically check out the buckle on that rubber strap and you will understand.
 - The blue lume is to die for
 - Oris service has had quite a good track record and the parts are not costly (this is subjective to what you are comparing it to, I'm comparing it to Tag/Breitling)

Longines Hydroconquest
 - This watch never really did appeal to me as the Legend Diver totally overshadows it.

Now, I would recommend you broaden your search to include the below:

Sinn U1
Oris Prodiver

I won't go into the details of the above 2 watches because the fun is where you research it and physically go see it yourself. I would strongly recommend the above 2 although budget may need to stretch a bit, but if you are going to get a diver's watch, why not spend a bit more and get a really good one.

Just my 5 sen.

[notmanic]

Believe bro Glam hit it on the nail, both very different watches although within the same category & price range... I bought a Hydroconquest (HC) as I wanted a diver just like you, but my choice was made easier as I already had an Oris BC3 day date for a very long time... I wanted another brand and never considered Oris... I even seriously considered the LLD but somehow, the interest slowly faded away, but never really died out yet... hahahhahaha... waiting for a reignition...

But back to you, the Aquis is a very manly tool watch (looks tougher) and the range is always promoted by the brand as a serious diver's watch... The HC on the other hand is more versatile for different occassions as it gives you a more casual appearance... it would look great if you dress up like a talent out of a Nautica photoshoot, and also work if you're a serious diver... but if you're a serious diver, then you would look at the lume of both... I would have to admit that the lume for HC isn't great at all... not sure about the Aquis though...

as i own a piece from each of the brands, you really won't go wrong either way... but believe that there are other micro/niche brands out there that puts together great dive watches...

good luck!

[mike]

ppl asking for watch that sells around rm3k, now come the more expensive options

but between those 2, obviously diff watches.
the longines is more casual like, while the oris is very tool like and can also take a good beating and survive well.

Well he didn't mention his budget

[tjwen]

Well, I was, well, am in still the same situation as you are. Here's my take on things:

Longines Legend Diver
 - By far the nicest ever diver's watch in that category, however, the strap is really bad. You will need to change the strap if you want to use this for water sports or swimming.

Oris Aquis
 - Some say the Sellita movement may (big 'may' there) be sub-standard to the ETA, but if this doesn't bother you, it's a better bet than the Hydroconquest for a few reasons, firstly, the buckle on the rubber strap. Just go physically check out the buckle on that rubber strap and you will understand.
 - The blue lume is to die for
 - Oris service has had quite a good track record and the parts are not costly (this is subjective to what you are comparing it to, I'm comparing it to Tag/Breitling)

Longines Hydroconquest
 - This watch never really did appeal to me as the Legend Diver totally overshadows it.

Now, I would recommend you broaden your search to include the below:

Sinn U1
Oris Prodiver

I won't go into the details of the above 2 watches because the fun is where you research it and physically go see it yourself. I would strongly recommend the above 2 although budget may need to stretch a bit, but if you are going to get a diver's watch, why not spend a bit more and get a really good one.

Just my 5 sen.

Thanks for your opinion bro Guns and all your suggestions were well noted. Am interested to physically see the difference of ceramic bezel on Aquis versus the aluminium bezel on HC.

[tjwen]

ppl asking for watch that sells around rm3k, now come the more expensive options

but between those 2, obviously diff watches.
the longines is more casual like, while the oris is very tool like and can also take a good beating and survive well.

Well he didn't mention his budget

my budget is not more than RM5k 

[Everdying]

Thanks for your opinion bro Guns and all your suggestions were well noted. Am interested to physically see the difference of ceramic bezel on Aquis versus the aluminium bezel on HC.

there are 2 diff ceramic finishings.
the black one is matt.
the green and blue ones are glossy.

[mike]

ppl asking for watch that sells around rm3k, now come the more expensive options

but between those 2, obviously diff watches.
the longines is more casual like, while the oris is very tool like and can also take a good beating and survive well.

Well he didn't mention his budget

my budget is not more than RM5k 

The LLD is just a little over 5k, you can have a look at it, and you wont regret it because I fell for the poison of LLD too.

[tjwen]

Thanks for your opinion bro Guns and all your suggestions were well noted. Am interested to physically see the difference of ceramic bezel on Aquis versus the aluminium bezel on HC.

there are 2 diff ceramic finishings.
the black one is matt.
the green and blue ones are glossy.

Then I guess the glossy one will looks nicer 

[tjwen]

ppl asking for watch that sells around rm3k, now come the more expensive options

but between those 2, obviously diff watches.
the longines is more casual like, while the oris is very tool like and can also take a good beating and survive well.

Well he didn't mention his budget

my budget is not more than RM5k 

The LLD is just a little over 5k, you can have a look at it, and you wont regret it because I fell for the poison of LLD too.

Thanks for your recommendation , I will google and find out more about LLD 

[D'Andy]

I own quite a few pieces with the ETA 2824-2 movements, and also the Oris Aquis Date utilising the SW200 movement. In my humble opinion, the school of thought that SW200 is 'lesser' than the ETA 2824-2 is evidenced only by snobish appeal towards the ETA originality. The SW200 was reverse-engineered by Sellita from 2824 after the ETA patent lapsed; so if anything, it should be better. Time-keeping wise, I see no differences between both movements to be honest. And Oris makes nice, dependable and affordable toolpieces; so if you're into the divers' genre, you would not go wrong with ths 43mm Aquis Date. I own a few Oris' pieces including the 49mm ProDiver Titanium, and I felt that the Aquis Date is the better choice as the size is not too bulky when worn with office long sleeve shirts and there is the manly feel of its weight on one's wrist as opposed to the ProDiver huge size but almost-sissy like weight. Just my 2 sen.

[TJWN]

just realise our nick is so .... similar

the movement
need not to worry about this, reliability is proven. accuracy could always be regulated.

the design
both has a diver design, the oris dial is much balanced with indexes and date at 6, longines dial is cluttered with the 12,6,9 index while 3 is replaced by the date.

the brand
of course longines has a longer history since 1832 while oris is started at 1904, longines is more well known for their master piece and some.of the heritage collection today, the dver hydroconquest is not their focus...oris is recognised by their big crown date pointer during the early days but today oris is very much well kNown for making diving watches with several special edition intoduced for charity for the coral reef etc etc.

the strap.
both has a solid ss bracelet, but if you intended to change to a rubber or leather strap afterward, you could easily opt for a 3rd party strap for longines, but you need to get the ori from oris.

the material
oris has a ceramic bezel and longines has a ss bezel. the oris has a display back case while longines has a solid back case.

others
this is one of the most important issue, longines has a quartz model with identical design as the automatic one at a much lower price. Oris is only available in mechanical.

my vote goes to oris   

[mike]

If I had to choose one between these both, I'll go for the Oris too.

[hidden830726]

Longines for me.