Wittnauer

Born in the 1880s, Wittnauer gained a reputation for their high quality complicated watches. Aviators like Amelia Earhart piloted planes with Wittnauer instruments, and Jimmy Mattern wore a Wittnauer AllProof in his attempted trans world 1933 flight. Longines bought Wittnauer in the 1950s, and the brand continued to produce great watches at a more competitive price. They also became the official importer of Longines watches into the United States.

The Wittnauer 2000 and 2002 was introduced in 1970 and was in production until 1975. The former model was cased in stainless steel and the latter, which is the present lot, was gold plated. Although the watch was marketed as a perpetual calendar, the brand recognized that this was not entirely true as it only covered the years from 1971 to 2015. 

The models were actually a white label product from the Japanese watch brand, Orient. Orient had a similar model called the ”Y469672-4A” and manufactured the models 2000 and 2002 for Wittnauer by contract. The connection clearly labelled by the word 'Japan' on the bottom of the dial and movement. The Orient Y469672-4A from the 1970s can be traced back to an even older model from Orient called ”Multi-Year Calendar”. The dial had almost the same layout as the later Orient/Wittnauer model but the watchcase was only 39 mm in diameter. Note the years in the calendar – they start at 1960 – indicating that the calendar concept had existed for 10 years in Japan before being exported to America.

This present lot represents an opportunity to own a unique looking watch.