Longines

Founded at Saint-Imier in 1832 and still there. Longines spent the middle of the last century building slim automatic calibres that were genuinely difficult to make and never advertised as such — the 994 under a linen dial is the clearest example.

That is why we keep buying them. The engineering is invisible, so the market prices the case metal and the name rather than what is turning inside. Well-kept examples with original dials are still reachable.