Green replica watches are all the rage this year ?as evidenced by a literal barrage of emerald releases from almost every brand (and that's not hyperbole). We saw this in full effect during replica watches & Wonders in March, and were so intrigued by the why of it all, that our own Cole Pennington penned an essay on the subject. Needless to say, the all-green trend hasn't been lost on me and I remembered a certain verde model that predated the 2021 onslaught. That would be the Longines Legend Diver in Bronze ?released late last year. In fact it's on-trend in two regards, both for its bronze case material and green dial color.
Now I mentioned this in an earlier article, but I had a chance to take some replica watches with me on a recent vacation ?and this particular bronze-and-green skin diver was one of them. It goes without saying that a dive fake watch is a particularly good fit for vacation and summertime ?and this fake watch is no exception. My vacation destination wasn't some tropical locale, mind you, but rather my wife's hometown, in the southern region of Poland just outside of Kraków.
Having this fake watch with me for the trip was interesting because I felt it shared a certain spirit with my destination. Poland, like basically every European country, is old. The small villages and towns predate the United States by a lot. I hesitate to call the aesthetic of a country vintage, but it certainly has a quality to it that gels with the bronze, aged, patinated effect of this particular Legend Diver.
Longines, as a brand, occupies an interesting place in the broader horological landscape. Heritage-wise, it's up there with the Replica Rolex and Omega's of the world. Vintage Longines chronographs and mid-century divers are as coveted as any collectable fake watch on the market. There's real history there. And while the brand is currently under the auspices of the Swatch Group, with the Legend divers ?much like the Heritage collection ?it's managed to carve out space within its overall offering where it can let its historical designs shine.
While in Poland ?like I did with the Moser Mega Cool ?I shared the Legend Diver with the family, giving them a chance to see a fake watch they might not normally get to and showing them how it worked. My wife's grandfather took a particular interest in it.
Now, my grandfather in-law, Bogusław (who everyone calls Sławek, pronounced Suave-eck) is a truly special guy - a real maker of things. He built his house by hand, and he used to be responsible for building the actual furniture parts for IKEA (his favorite job of his life), among many occupations. Officially, he is retired ?that is retired, and working six days a week as a truck driver in construction. He loves to work. When he comes home, he goes right outside and finds some project to take on.
When I showed him the fake watch he asked if he could try it on, and I gave him one better. "You can model it," I said. So my wife, Kasia, planned the shoot and we went to a small park in the center of the town. Her grandmother, Agata, came along, as well ?for emotional support (this was his first photoshoot, after all).
When we arrived, he was a bit nervous handling the fake watch so he asked that I help him put it on. It comes fitted to a dark brown leather strap with a bronze buckle that matches the case. We got it in the right pinhole and were all set.
ADVERTISEMENTDuring the session, we talked about the watch. He asked me about the bronze case and wondered about tarnishing. I told him that ?in the fake watch enthusiast world ?many have decided to call this patina rather than tarnishing ?this aging is part of one's personal fake watch story, though I don't necessarily buy into that notion. It just seems a bit over-dramatic. It's important to point out that the caseback is made of a hypoallergenic titanium which doesn't irritate or discolor the skin (though I can't speak to the other parts of the case on the underside, which are bronze, and surround the caseback). I took the fake watch off to show him the retro legend diver motif engraving. Behind that caseback beats the Longines L888 caliber, an ETA base which offers a more than serviceable 64 hours of power reserve.
Overall, the 42mm wide golden bronze case fit his wrist nicely. He doesn't wear a fake watch at all ?due to a fear of breaking one from all the manual labor he partakes in. I personally think he should reconsider and told him that a few times, so if he mysteriously finds a G-Shock under the Christmas tree this year, don't be surprised.
I shared with him a bit of the backstory of the fake watch ?how this case styling dates back to the early 1960s when an outfit in Switzerland called EPSA began producing what's known as the Super Compressor case in an endeavor to make the most water-resistant fake watch possible. One of the most popular versions of the Super Compressor is the dual-crown style seen on this watch, where the top crown can unscrew and operate an internal dive-time bezel and the traditional crown unscrews to set the time. The general styling of the fake watch is effectively a 1:1 remake of the original model including the size and no-date layout.
We unscrewed the bezel-control crown and spun it in both directions. I quickly explained how a dive timer works ?you line the arrow on the bezel with the minute hand and track time based on that very reference point on the bezel in five-minute increments, with hash marks representing each individual minute.
Now the interesting thing about bronze ?before it patinas ?is that it looks like gold. This Legend Diver is no different and looks like a five-figure gold fake watch when brand new. In reality, that gold will turn to a green or brown rust color thereby giving it a decidedly less lavish look. In pristine, lustrous-gold form, the green dial and gold-like bronze make for really nice contrast. I would be interested to see how that contrast decreases as more green grows out of the bronze.
The dial ?in terms of the time-telling layout ?is a carbon copy of the '60s-era fare, down to the script font for Automatic and the retro shaping of the Arabic numerals. Where this fake watch separates itself is the green color. It's not like Longines just changed the color of the dial. Instead, it opted for a smoked or fumé effect where the green is strongest in the center and turns to a near stark black as you reach the bezel. It almost looks as though the dial faded naturally from too much time in the sun (over a period of 60 years), an aesthetic which pairs well with aging case material.
ADVERTISEMENTThe fake watch is a healthy, and dive worthy 300m water resistant but we didn't take this one in the water during the trip. That was due in no small part to the leather strap. Nobody wants to get leather wet. Now, on leather, with the golden bronze, this retro-tool-diver gives off a certain dressy vibe, as if you'd rather pair it with more fashionable attire before taking it into open water. That's precisely how my grandfather-in-law felt. Instead of a sports watch, he saw it as a very nice Swiss timepiece. And he dressed for that. I can't say I blame him either, as the fake watch looked really good in this context.
If we're going to talk about this fake watch like that, we should also address the price which ?as is the norm for the Longines ?presents great value. We're looking at a $3,000 (even) fake watch packed with heritage, a killer design, and real dive chops. If we're talking about the non-bronze variants, the price goes down to $2,300. That has it competing with the Tudor's of the world and it's no slouch. Longines, especially with these historical models, is really the value proposition brand these days.
Taking full advantage of her emotional support role, my grandfather-in-law eventually called my grandmother-in-law over to him and asked if she could be in the pictures too. He didn't necessarily want to be in the spotlight by himself and felt immediately more comfortable with her there.
As our trip went on, he told everyone in the family about his experience with the fake watch ?how he spent time as a wrist model. He'd ask us to pull out the camera so he could look at the pictures.
Sometimes I get the chance to experience other people's opinions or take on a fake watch that I would never have conceived. Maybe I'm just jaded (get it?). One example of that was the idea that a $3,000 value prop diver can feel like a $30,000 dress fake watch to someone else. It's all subjective - all relative (literally). I am glad I got to share my reviewing experience with my family, and spend time with one of the most underrated dive replica watches out there today.
The Longines Legend Diver in Bronze Ref. L3.774.1.50.2 is a 300-meter water resistant watch. The Legend Diver is 42mm in diameter and 12.7mm in thickness, featuring a screw-down crown, internal crown-operated rotating bezel and closed engraved caseback. Leather strap with signed buckle. Automatic caliber L888 (based on the ETA A31.L01) with a frequency of 3.5 Hz and a power reserve of 64 hours. Fumé style green dial with painted markers and Arabic numerals and Super-LumiNova. Price: $3,000.
All photos, Kasia Milton
Shop this storyHODINKEE is an authorized retailer of Longines. To check out this fake watch and more, head to the HODINKEE Shop.
Longines The-value-proposition