Recently acquired and listed this beautiful vintage 1930s Wittnauer watch, a brand that is often overlooked and forgotten, though it played an important role in the history of American watchmaking.
Established in 1880 by a Swiss immigrant in New York City, Albert Wittnauer used foresight to break into the Swiss watch market by producing/assembling domestically, thus making these high quality watches a lot more affordable to American buyers.
Most notable was its link to the Navy and Aviation, becoming one of most coveted watch brands at the time. Wittnauer had a hand in providing the instruments for the Lockheed Vega-5B (Amelia Earhart). Jimmie Mattern wore a Wittnauer during his 1933 flight around the world. That same exact watch was worn by Neil Armstrong years later.
Since then, Wittnauer was slowly forgotten by the public, as they merged, sold, and rebranded, and slipped into obscurity.
Quality vintage watches always have a classy look that is hard to reproduce. This particular watch in my collection is unfortunately not working. What a terrible shame to have such a beautiful watch in ones collection that doesn't work.
I'm hoping an avid collector with manual wind repair knowledge may restore it to its former glory. This 10K Gold Filled beauty is engraved in the back and given as a Christmas gift in 1939. A testament of its popularity back in the days...
