I was on a flight from Boracay to Manila waiting for the crew to pop the cabin door open when I thought I recognised what I thought to be a Longines Conquest watch on the wrist of what appeared to be a youngish South Korean gentleman.

I was guessing South Korean as there was a very large contingent of South Korean holidaymakers on Boracay. Upon closer inspection as he was holding onto the overhead lockers I noticed it was actually a Rolex Explorer he was wearing.

He was dressed pretty casually as one would expect returning from Boracay and I asked myself. Does this guy normally wear a suit and tie to work Monday to Friday as a successful businessman or is he the son of a rich dad? The way that South Korea has transformed into a leading industrialised nation in the region is impressive. Was his apparent wealth earned or inherited? His mannerisms left me none the wiser as he didn’t appear overly confident nor did he appear to be over-compensating.

I was wearing my Longines Conquest on this particular trip so whilst I couldn’t place the timepieces side-by-side, the similarities from my head twisting were striking. I was admiring the watch-face when he rolled his wrist over and I got a good look at the clasp mechanism. I thought Longines has a nicer clasp mechanism, was this the only area the Conquest had improved on the Explorer? Both timepieces have changed over time, they are not the original and have had plenty of cosmetic and structural changes over the years.

Whilst it would be pretty fair to assume the Longines Conquest is a knock-off of the Rolex Explorer as Rolex is a brand that is constantly imitated and undoubtedly a market leader in design and development. The original 1954 Longines Conquest may be more akin to the early Omega Seamaster line of watch.

Even the naming of Conquest and Explorer informs the wearer this is a sports watch even though I purchased my Conquest as somewhat of a casual dress watch as opposed to the dive watches I usually wear. That isn’t entirely true, I had nothing with a leather strap that was thin enough to fit under a shirt sleeve. The Explorer was branded as a mountaineering timepiece on its release in 1953 to commemorate Hillary’s successful Mt Everest expedition, the Conquest was released a year later in 1954 but had the appearance more of a dress watch.

The Conquest fields the ETA L633 Calibre movement whilst the Explorer is fitted with the in-house Calibre 3132 automatic movement with the Conquest maintains a 38 hour power reserve and the Explorer sporting a 48 power reserve. The Conquest is water resistant to 300 metres with the Explorer rated to 100 metres. There is no discussion of which is the better movement, everyone knows it is the Calibre 3132. There is no discussion between an ETA and in-house Rolex movement in terms of quality.

There are subtle differences beginning with the four point numbering on the face on the Explorer and just two point numbering on the Conquest. I also noticed the H link bracelets appeared somewhat similar. The numerals are once again very similar in style and both watches have a black dial. The angled stainless steel bezel is pretty much identical on both watches, I didn’t have the opportunity to place them side by side for a better comparison so I decided to visit the Rolex shop that weekend to research the two timepieces.

The saleswoman asked me if I was interested in the Explorer I released in 1953 or the Explorer II released in 1971, this question threw me out somewhat as I wasn’t ready for that question but I wanted the classic Explorer. She informed me that they had no Explorers in stock and a waiting list existed, I asked “two weeks, two months or two years?” Her reply was about two years but that didn’t shock me as I was aware such a waiting list was normal in Singapore.

Still, she quoted me a price and after a quick currency calculation informed this was approximately $9000 AUD. I already was in possession of a Conquest and after hard negotiating, I had received a 30% discount off the retail price. I liked my timepiece and I wasn’t interested in coughing up a further $7500 AUD for somewhat of an identical watch so I walked. Sure, his was better but I am happy enough with what I have.