With Singapore celebrating its 50th year of independence in 2015, Longines was among the first (and most likely the first) to launch a commemorative timepiece celebrating this Golden Jubilee.
The watch is known as its Master Collection GMT Singapore – 50th Anniversary of Independence.
This 38.5mm Longines GMT is in 18K rose gold and features Singapore as the representative city inscribed in red for the time zone UTC (Coordinated Universal Time or Universal Time Coordinated) + 8.00.
On the transparent display case back is the commemorative print inscribed “Singapore celebrates 50 years of independence 2015” and the image of the moon crescent with five stars which are symbols for Singapore’s flag.
On 9 August 1965, Singapore officially separated from Malaysia to become an independent nation.
It was only on 31 August 1963 that Singapore became part of the Federation of Malaysia which comprised Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak and North Borneo (Sabah).
Singapore’s separation and independence was announced on Radio Singapore on 9 August 1965 at 10am. The separation was simultaneously announced by Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Abdul Rahman (1903 to 1990) to the federal parliament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Singapore therefore became an independent nation on 9 August 1965 which was first led by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew (1923 to 2015).
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