Over the past decade or so, there has been a slow morphing of Longines’ image. Once synonymous with sleek steel pieces or chunky sports styles, it has become known as the go-to brand for desirable vintage-inspired designs at wallet-friendly prices. This has been achieved by mining its back catalogue for forgotten gems, such as the ultimate military aviator timepiece – the Longines Pilot Majetek.

When it comes to the history of military watches, this is perhaps one of the lesser-known players. Which is a shame because the watch that came out of the brand’s partnership with the Czech Air Force (“majetek” being Czech for “property”) is gorgeous. For a pre-war watch it is remarkably contemporary. For starters, there’s the case size. At 40mm it is in tune with modern tastes – in 1935 it would have seemed enormous. The cushion-shape happens to be one of the most popular styles at the moment, and then there’s the fluted bezel that rotates to move an inner red triangle to act as a very basic GMT function. The only thing that dates it are the cathedral hands, but otherwise it could stand upas a brand-new design today.

The aesthetic cues of the Majetek have been mined before, back in 2014, under the Heritage 1935 moniker. Now it’s back, under its own name and with revisions. The case is now 43mm, the hands are baton rather than cathedral, and they are also phosphorescent. The ETA 2895-2 that powered the 2014 reissue has been replaced by Longines’ own L893.6, which has increased the power reserve from 42 hours to 72.

The other major change is the removal of the date window at six o’clock. Available with a brown leather strap, it also has a sludgy-green Nato-inspired option.

Fans of the original will enjoy the reintroduction of the rotating bezel and inner triangle marker, this time fluorescent rather than red. In the 1935 version the crystal rotated as a unit with the bezel, but here the sapphire stays still; a detail that has improved the water resistance of the case, making it good to 100m.

The desire for vintage-inspired or retro reissue timepieces shows no sign of being satisfied and it’s easy to see why. In many ways, these are the ideal watches for now – ones that appear to embody an aesthetic and an attitude that feels, somehow, to have been lost. Of all the brands that are turning to their archives for inspiration, Longines seems to have an uncanny talent for parlaying nostalgia into need.

£3,400; longines.co.uk