The Longines Symphonette Society was a division of the "Century Old Longines-Wittnauer Watch Co., makers of 'The World's Most Honored Watch'," according to an advertising blurb of the period. In any case the society issued some very fine quality LP box sets during the 1960s and '70s. There were a number of single LP releases as well.
The Longines Symphonette recordings were sold via a mail-order subscription service and featured both well-known artists (eg., Mills Brothers, Benny Goodman) and an uncredited orchestral group that played lush instrumental versions of standards and pop hits. In other words, the company was mining the same territory as Reader's Digest and Time-Life Records.
This anonymous aggregation, which at least one source says was led by Robert Farnon at recording sessions in Britain, is aboard for the box set The American Composers Musical Hall of Fame, a tribute to Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael and Jerome Kern. Below you can listen to Porter's True Love, from the film High Society.
True Love
Longines Symphonette also issued a single LP with selections from this set. It's difficult to say whether any of this material has been released on CD or is being sold as downloads (legal ones, that is). That's because Longines sold its record business to the Warner Music Group and the Longines recordings since the 1990s have been credited to merely the Symphonette Society (and other equally bland names) without any reference to the watch company. But Longines Symphonette vinyl recordings still turn up with surprising regularity in thrift stores and online, usually at reasonable prices.
Here's a selection from a 1974 Longines Dixieland-themed set entitled The Roaring '20s.
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