NavList:

Ed Popko You wrote: I have always admire these kinds of ads. Without ever saying so directly, you are led to believe that this watch was key to Lindbergh's New York to Paris success. The background Atlantic Ocean map that covers his route, the example latitude/longitude is on or near his historic flight path, statements about how critical time is in position finding and portraits of Lindbergh all leads you to believe that this watch made it happen. Which, of course, it didn't. It was designed and produced by Longines AFTER the flight.  For sure, Longines was anxious to leverage Lindbergh's image to make a play for the emerging aviation market.

Ed
I felt similarly sceptical about some of the suggestions made in the ad.  My feeling re Lindbergh was that he placed accurately following the required heading high on his list of requirements for accurate DR navigation.  This is something he had learned and practiced throughout substantial flying career.  I deduced this while retyping for myself a copy of a carbon under-copy of Lindbergh’s talk to Cadets at the RAF College Cranwell in 1937 (attached below).  E.g.  He says that during the Atlantic crossing he was too busy flying the aircraft correctly to use the drift sight.  This under-copy was probably typed for Lindbergh before the talk by his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh while the couple were living in England and is now held in the archives of College Hall Library at RAF Cranwell.  You’ll notice that nowhere in his description of navigation on three of his pioneering flights does he mention the importance of a watch, let alone a ‘magic watch’. DaveP