Longines, Official Timekeeper and Watch of Glasgow 2014, the XX Commonwealth Games

Glasgow (Scotland) / Saint-Imier (Switzerland), 4 August 2014 – Glasgow witnessed the Closing Ceremony of the XX Commonwealth Games on Sunday 3 August 2014. Longines is proud to have been the Official Timekeeper and Watch of Glasgow 2014, the XX Commonwealth Games, as well as the Presenting Partner of the Gymnastics competitions. Over a period of 11 days of competitions, the Swiss watch brand provided its skilled expertise to the largest sporting event ever held in Scotland. Glasgow 2014 offered a great opportunity to discover the Conquest Classic collection.

Glasgow witnessed the Closing Ceremony of the XX Commonwealth Games on Sunday 3 August 2014. Mr. Charles Villoz, Vice President of Longines, attended this great show in the company of Glasgow 2014 Chairman Lord Smith of Kelvin. To honour the success of the event and the great collaboration, Lord Smith of Kelvin was presented with a Longines timekeeping bell by Mr. Villoz, created especially for the Games.

Longines is proud to have been the Official Timekeeper and Watch of Glasgow 2014, the XX Commonwealth Games, as well as the Presenting Partner of the Gymnastics competitions. Over a period of 11 days of competitions, the Swiss watch brand put its skilled expertise in the service of the largest sporting event ever held in Scotland. It provided more than 190 timekeepers and 122 tonnes of equipment to support Glasgow 2014.

The Games were marked by amazing performances. At the Rhythmic Gymnastics competitions, Patricia Bezzoubenko (Canada) won the Individual All-Around Final, the Individual Hoop Final, the Individual Ball Final and the Individual Clubs Final, while Francesca Jones (Wales) won the Individual Ribbon Final.

Glasgow 2014’s Artistic Gymnastics competitions witnessed great performances too. Claudia Fragapane (England) won the Women’s Individual All-Around Final, while Max Whitlock (England) won the Men’s Individual All-Around Final. The competitions were marked by the victories of Claudia Fragapane at the Women’s Floor and at the Women’s Vault Finals, of Rebecca Downie (England) at the Women’s Uneven Bars Final, of Elsabeth Black (Canada) at the Women’s Beam Final, of Max Whitlock at the Men’s Floor Final, of Scott Morgan (Canada) at the Men’s Vault and at the Men’s Rings Finals, of Daniel Purvis (Scotland) at the Men’s Parallels Bars Final, of Nile Wilson (England) at the Men’s Horizontal Bar Final, and of Daniel Keatings (Scotland) at the Men’s Pommel Horse Final.

At the Swimming competitions, Maddison Elliott (Australia) broke the Women's Para-Sport 100m Freestyle S8 World Record with a time of 1:05.32, Rowan Crothers from Australia broke the Men's Para-Sport 100m Freestyle S8 & S9 World Records with a time of 54.58, while Daniel Fox (Australia) broke the Men's Para-Sport 200m Freestyle S14 World Record with a time of 1:57.16. In addition, Australia broke the Women's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay World Record with a time of 3:30.98. At the powerlifting competitions, Esther Oyema (Nigeria) entered the history as the first woman in the Women's up to 50kg category to lift 125.0 kg.  Besides these World Records, more than 60 Commonwealth Games Records were broken at Glasgow 2014.

The Official Watch of the Games was a chronograph in steel from the Conquest Classic collection, housing an exclusive mechanical column-wheel calibre. With a diameter of 41 mm, its black dial is set with one arabic numeral and 11 applied indices with Super-LumiNova®. It displays the hours and the minutes, a small second at 9, a 30-minute counter at 3, a 12-hour counter at 6 as well as the date at 4:30. Just as the entire Conquest Classic collection, this timepiece is water-resistant to 5 bar and its screw-down case back is fitted with a sapphire glass.

The Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving 71 teams of athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 and takes place every four years. Glasgow 2014, the XX Commonwealth Games, featured 17 sports in 11 days of competition with 261 medal events on show. The Games played host to 4500 athletes and sold 1,000,000 tickets with the event aided by an army of 15,000 volunteers.

Longines’ involvement in the Commonwealth Games dates back to 1962, when it was the Timekeeper of the event in Perth, Australia.